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Is Capital Punishment Jusitified

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Submitted By mirandabashir
Words 1262
Pages 6
Is Capital Punishment justified? Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, can be defined as "the premeditated and planned taking of a human life by a government in response to a crime committed by that legally convicted person" (White). The death penalty is executed in many countries whether they are developed, developing or underdeveloped nations. Many different types of execution are used around the world. The most common forms would be lethal injections, electric chairs, and gas chambers. In many countries execution by shooting, stoning, hanging or beheading are still used. One can argue that capital punishment has positive impacts, although statistics, research and professional studies show serious flaws. By using a system that values retribution over rehabilitation, men, women, and even children, are all put at risk of facing execution whether they are truly proven guilty or wrongfully convicted. The death penalty is unjustified because it is fundamentally immoral, ineffective in preventing crime, and sometimes mistakenly used to punish innocent people. The possibility of execution of an innocent citizen is reason enough for capital punishment to be considered an injustice. Since 1973, over 140 people in America have been wrongfully convicted and exonerated from death row due to the evidence of their wrongful conviction. (Amnesty International) “We all make mistakes” is a phrase often used and demonstrated through human behaviour. However, this mistake or error is very dangerous in the case of capital punishment. For example, in Florida 2012, Seth Penalver, was acquitted of all charges including death row after being arrested in 1994, for the brutal murder of three people. No physical evidence was found leading him to the murders; the only evidence collected was a poor quality video where the real murderer’s face could not be seen. Although,

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