Century Skills: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Nov 5, 2011

PHI-105 21st Century Skills: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Death Penalty

My personal opinion on the death penalty is that it is wrong and too many mistakes have been made. In this paper reasons for a change from its history to its irrelevance will be examined. First as a Christian I cannot agree with the killing of another human being no matter the consequences. Executing a person kills him before the time of their natural death. Some Christians believe that God places people on Earth for a purpose. If we kill them prematurely, then we may be thwarting God's will. Human life has intrinsic value, even if a person has murdered another individual. The death penalty denies the sacredness of human life. Live is so precious that nobody should ever be killed, even by the state.

Second as America has evolved so has the way in which society wants to deal with capital punishment. The death penalty has not been shown to be effective in the reduction of the homicide rate. There are some indications that executions actually increase the murder rate. According to Amnesty International more than half the countries in the world have now abolished the Death Penalty in law or in practice (Gill K, 2011). The death penalty puts innocent lives at stake. It is widely recognized that our justice system is not perfect. There are times when people are wrongly accused of crimes or they are not granted fair trials. There is still corruption in our justice system, and bias and discrimination occur.

The history of the death penalty like all other aspects of the criminal justice system is a long and storied one but it is time for the way in which we deal with capital offenses to join the 21st century. The most popular alternative to the death penalty is life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus restitution. This alternative