Monday, December 17, 2007

The ultimate price

Are you for or against the death penalty?

I am sure most of us have searched within ourselves for the answer to this question. And as is the case with any contentious issue, we find all sorts of arguments and counter-arguments in favor of or against this issue.

My personal belief is that even if the death penalty is appropriate for certain individuals and for certain crimes, no country in the world has a flawless judicial system. The Judiciary and the Police force are after all made up of human beings. And as well know, humans are not without flaws. We are biased, we are opinionated, we are greedy and we are corrupt. There is no way to guarantee that the person being executed is truly guilty.

Therefore, even if 99% of the convictions are justified, we need to abolish the death penalty for the 1% who are innocent souls that pay the ultimate price for someone else's crimes.

9 comments:

ceedy said...

I second that - killing someone is actually an easy way to put an end to the criminal - the way to punish is to make them live and see the suffering they have caused :)

if we are not the ones to give life how can we take it ??

Preethi said...

You see these are exactly the kinds of things where i can never ever take a stand..I'll make a very bad jury/judge :) But i'm going to say whatever makes sense at this moment... some people deserve to die. They cannot be in harmony with the society. If as you say we don't penalise the evil won't it pave way for innocent killings of others in the society. You see the fear of the law stops atleast a few of them from committing this heinous crime. I'm sure if the law were any less people would use their guns frivolously.

Pri said...

i agree with this...
mainly for 2 reasons...
1) as u said, maybe the judicial system just might be wrong and someone innocent is framed for someone else's commited crime...
2)like ceedy said, the worst punishment one could ever get is to live a life full of guilt constantly being reminded of what theyve done and being made to realise tht the guilty can never go scot free...
somewhere somehow everybopdy has to pay for their actions...

take care!

Cosmic Joy said...

@ceedy - I think you and I have have the same views on this one :)

@preethi - You may be correct about some people deserving the ultimate punishment. I am not saying we stop penalising the evil. However, statistics have shown that the death penalty does not in any way reduce the number of crimes being commited. And then, as I was trying to say, we have a flawed judicial system made up of humans. For these reasons, I was against it.

@pri - Thanks for your comments. As you said everybody should be held accountable for their actions .. however, in our flawed system, it doesnt always happen.

Deepali said...

Today is still not the day for this comment (but so that I don't totally forget about it here goes).

I believe in closure.

I don't think having someone else's opinion on a topic like this helps anyone. All you get to do is count how many people are with you or against you. You can't change my view and I can't change yours. This just is not that kind of question.

just pk said...

i only have one thing to say...if we cannot give life we have not right to take one!!!

Cosmic Joy said...

@deepali - nothing is set in stone .. not even views and opinions. Circumstances and experiences change everything. My purpose is not to count the yea and nae votes. It is more about trying to understand how and why people have certain views.

And as you mentioned since this was not the day and you believe in closure .. I will wait for your final comments on this :)

@pk - But its not always possible to put that in practice. I certainly believe there are times when taking a life is the only choice available.

Romila said...

Often debated with my husband on this. Good that you brought it up.
My opinion, death penalty should strictly be given to serial criminals of the felonious kind, who have time and again proven themselves unsafe to society. Such criminals,usually come to light through their mutiple offenses witnessed by many or straight from a victim's mouth. I guess, in such cases, there's no room for any doubt on the criminal's intent however flawed the judicial system is. Hence, the axe should fall on him lest he'll encourage his tribe.

Cosmic Joy said...

@romila - what you say makes sense. As long as there is no room for doubt.