“I believe that more people would be alive today if there were a death
penalty.”
― Nancy Reagan
Death penalties being the gravest of all punishments would be quite familiar to you. Newspapers, internet very often contain articles about terrorists being caught and awarded death sentences.
Are there any positive and negative aspects of death penalty? What are the grounds under which death penalty is awarded in India?
Our discussion will focus on these aspects and at the end; you yourself can judge
upon its rationality.
What are the pros of death penalty?
- Retribution
Retribution means punishment inflicted on someone upon committing a crime in the society. This concept evolves from the saying “Tooth for a Tooth and an Eye for an Eye” which can be the strongest argument of the capital punishment. When a criminal commits an act to satisfy his selfish motives resulting into personal gains then the balance of justice in society is disturbed. To maintain this balance the criminal should be punished with the same intensity of punishment no matter, even if it is capital punishment. If the criminal can dare to take away liberty, peace, lives from any individual then the justice says that he should also be deprived of all these facilities leading to a comfortable life it the society.
- Deterrence
The best working formula to prevent a person from doing crime is to exhibit him the fear of consequences of his actions. Like if one puts you in fear of going into “Hell” after death, then it may stop you from doing any immoral act .It also act like a lesson to the rest of the mankind. Even in the case of life imprisonment, it is less feared because in that case, at least the life is saved. But in the case of death penalty snatching away of the human life is the most terrifying consequence.
- Less damage is adopted to prevent more
You can say, a criminal is like a rotten apple among the good ones, a virus to the society, which can even infect others of the same disease. For example when a doctor takes out any body part to save life of a patient similarly, a criminal is cut out permanently from the society for the well being of the society. Death Penalty is the best way to remove such infected people from the society.
- Less expense incurred
Death Penalty is the cheapest way to remove the infected from the society. If the criminal is awarded life imprisonment, all his expenditure is supported by the government. Instead of spending money this way money can be used for the development of the society and well being of the people. Today lots of people die of hunger, which in turn raises number of cases of crime in the society.
- Eliminates negativity
Death Penalty proves to be the best formula to eliminate negative vibes from the society forever thus, leading to a more humane society. Everybody likes positive environment and positive minded people around himself and these criminals especially those who perform acts which lead to hindrance of one‟s freedom and life spreads negativity in society and even results in degradation of peace of society.
What are the cons of Death Penalty?
- Human Rights violation
This is perhaps the strongest of all arguments. Human rights which are defined as the very basic rights to be given to an individual to lead a respectable life and are considered to be one of the most important right to be observed by any individual. Right to life is the basic right of any human being. Every individual has a right to live whether criminal or not.
- Wrongful execution
No one can be perfect, and so the Judiciary. It is often the innocent who face wrongful execution. Many have become the victim of this wrongful execution which leads to lose of faith in law and justice among citizens. Sometimes improper procedure and formalities leads to unfair execution.
- Capital Punishment is less grave
Some people believe that Capital Punishment is awarded to those convicts who have done some serious crime such as mass murder, treason, terrorism, rape etc. Such criminals deserve more severe punishment.. Instead, convicts should be awarded life imprisonment and they should be tortured during this punishment so that they never even dream to repeat any such act.
- Second chance
Can’t we just give the offender a second chance according to the concept of “Ahimsa”? As human are believed to be imperfect and every human should be given a second chance to correct himself. Even the criminals should be given this privilege. They are also human beings. He should be given another chance to improve himself and make himself fit for the society. And, Justice‟ is for everyone.
Now it is now your turn to decide upon capital punishment’s rationality !
This article has been contributed by Anurag Mishra, First Year, Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad