The Declining Efficacy of Capital Punishment in Modern Society

The death penalty is the worst ultimate punishment for any human being in the world. There is indeed no harsher punishment than death itself. As per my knowledge, currently, more than fifty nations practice the death penalty.

Before I start to make an argument, I would like to provide some background information regarding the death penalty. The idea of death punishment was brought over from Britain when the founding fathers declared independence. Our ancestors loved the idea of the death penalty since it was a common part of our lives. During the nineteenth century, the death penalty changed dramatically. Around this time, the death penalty started to lose popularity. States changed the rules to no longer continue execution in public. All executions were conducted in private afterward.

Capital Punishment: Delays, Doubts, and the Question of Deterrence

As of today, if we talk about the death penalty, many nations still practice it, but there are some limitations. But in my opinion, the death penalty can no longer be claimed as an efficient form of retribution. There are huge delays in carrying out the executions of an inmate. Statistics show that there is an over eight to ten-year wait before an execution can take place. In such scenarios, most of the inmates die of natural causes before the execution sentence can be carried out. Such a case has happened in my life as one of my friends murdered his brother because his family issues took a hype. He was sentenced to 9 years life in prison before execution, and surprisingly, he died after four years because of a heart attack.

Since I, too, believe that the death penalty is no longer an effective punishment, I do support Amnesty International in its motto of not using the death penalty in any single case of life. Also, I do not believe the death penalty is deterrence because most offenders do not believe they would be caught. So, if the offender does not believe that a real risk is present, there will be no deterrence.

References

1. Doe, J. (2023). The Declining Efficacy of Capital Punishment in Modern Society. John’s Thoughts Blog.