Capital Punishment

Capital punishment or death penalty is punishing by killing someone and the crimes that lead to that form of death are called the capital crimes or capital offenses. Capital punishment has in the past been practiced by many societies as way to punish the most notorious criminals and political or religious opponents. Historically a person was subjected to torture and his/her execution was to be in public. Currently about thirty six countries actively continue to practice capital punishment while about 103 have completely abolished it for any crime. In most countries Capital punishment do not apply to individuals who were below 18 years at the time of crime but to some countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan have executed such individuals. While most countries have reserved that form of punishment for crimes such as murder, treason, espionage or military justice other countries crimes like rape, adultery, sodomy and incest carry capital punishment. Strict countries for example china offenses such as human and drug trafficking together with serious allegations of corruption are categories as capital offenses.

Why capital punishment should be abolished

First of all, in any justice system there is a bigger risk of executing innocent people and unlike the prison sentence capital punishment cannot be reversed and lives family and friends wounded of the justice system. Second, most of the time capital punishment is often used in an incorrect manner against the poor, racial, ethnic, and minority groups. Another reason is that capital punishment is incompatible with the regulated human rights and human dignity in the society, since it takes away the most basic of rights, right to life, and also it violates human right of not to be subjected to any form of torture or any inhumane treatment. Also death penalty does not effectively prevent crimes since until today crimes are still there despite such punishment being conducted in the past. Lastly, the use of public support in execution of death penalty can be perceived as a means of the people to want a free crime places and that is what can ever be achieved.

Abolishing capital punishment in the military

Racism and the application of capital punishment are two issues that go hand in hand. Military suffers itself in the increased minority abuse and biasness; this has only led to increased discrimination when it comes to applying capital punishment. Capital punishment in the military should be abolished completely with many researches showing how death sentence relayed on the race of the victim and not the race of the defendant.