Death penalty, as known as capital punishment, is a practice of executing the criminals who committed unforgivable crimes. The lethal punishment has existed since the beginning of civilization; however, the implementation of putting citizens to death has been one of the most-debated topics since the awakening of human rights in modern Western countries. Nowadays, both supporters and opponents advocate their stands. T,[U1] the supporters of death penalty stand for executing notorious lawbreakers to guarantee fairness and justice; on the other hand,s, the opponents advocate abolishing death penalty to implement human rights. Although many people in Taiwan support death penalty, I stand for abolishing death penalty because the executions violate human’s rights, encourage the revenge situations in society, and do not contribute to lower crime rates.
First of all, death penalty seriously violates the most fundamental human rights, namely the right to life. Fairly speaking, even the authority of the country should not have the right to deprive one’s life. The universal declaration of human rights was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris, France, in 1948. According to Article 3, “everyone has the right to live, liberty, and security”. Besides, according to Article 5, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Therefore, death rows are not only deprived from criminals’ rights to live but also force them to live in the a life of torture and cruel, which extremely violate both articles at the same time.
Second, death penalty may be considered merely a revenge, rather than maintaining justice. We should stop encouraging the social value system of “an eye for an eye, a life for a life” as revenge in our society. In other words, we should not punish a person by what he or she did. For example, we don’t allow to by obtaineing a theft’s property or to rapeping a rapist; hence, it’s more appropriate for us to stop the retribution of killing a murder. Also, when a killing spree happened, people are so raged that they argued to kill the murders. Take Tzeng Jei for an example. He randomly killed 4 people and hurt 24 passengers on the Taipei MRT in 2014.Taiwanese citizens were raged that they hoped he would been killed as soon as possible. However, after his death, we cannot make sure there will never happen the same situation again. In other words, sometimes, people just take death as an retribution to punish the murder, but they didn’t solve the problem fundamentally.
On the other hand, the many supporters believe that the implementation of capital punishment can lower the murder rates, while the facts directly dispel the myth. They are afraid of higher crime rates as a result of abolishment of capital punishment. According to FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (), conducted in the US, the murder rates in non-death penalty states dropped from 9.16 percent to 4.12 percent since 1990 to 2003. Besides, the researchers compared the murder rate in non-death penalty states with that in death penalty states, and the murder rate of the latter is higher than the former. The evidence represents that the capital punishment cannot contribute to the peace of society. Thus, from the statistics above, we should get rid of misunderstanding that the abolishment of death penalty would lead to higher crime rates. It’s time to embrace the fact that the non-death penalty society can be more peaceful than death penalty society.
To sum up, people still debate intensely for the fact that if the authorities get the rights to execute a person. The abolishment death penalty can make sure that each citizen has equal human right, eliminate the situation of retribution in Taiwan, and lead to lower to a more peaceful society.
Death penalty, as known as capital punishment, is a practice of executing the criminals who committed unforgivable crimes. The lethal punishment has existed since the beginning of civilization; however, the implementation of putting citizens to death has been one of the most-debated topics since the awakening of human rights in modern Western countries. Nowadays, both supporters and opponents advocate their stands. T,[U1] the supporters of death penalty stand for executing notorious lawbreakers to guarantee fairness and justice; on the other hand,s, the opponents advocate abolishing death penalty to implement human rights. Although many people in Taiwan support death penalty, I stand for abolishing death penalty because the executions violate human’s rights, encourage the revenge situations in society, and do not contribute to lower crime rates.
First of all, death penalty seriously violates the most fundamental human rights, namely the right to life. Fairly speaking, even the authority of the country should not have the right to deprive one’s life. The universal declaration of human rights was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris, France, in 1948. According to Article 3, “everyone has the right to live, liberty, and security”. Besides, according to Article 5, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Therefore, death rows are not only deprived from criminals’ rights to live but also force them to live in the a life of torture and cruel, which extremely violate both articles at the same time.
Second, death penalty may be considered merely a revenge, rather than maintaining justice. We should stop encouraging the social value system of “an eye for an eye, a life for a life” as revenge in our society. In other words, we should not punish a person by what he or she did. For example, we don’t allow to by obtaineing a theft’s property or to rapeping a rapist; hence, it’s more appropriate for us to stop the retribution of killing a murder. Also, when a killing spree happened, people are so raged that they argued to kill the murders. Take Tzeng Jei for an example. He randomly killed 4 people and hurt 24 passengers on the Taipei MRT in 2014.Taiwanese citizens were raged that they hoped he would been killed as soon as possible. However, after his death, we cannot make sure there will never happen the same situation again. In other words, sometimes, people just take death as an retribution to punish the murder, but they didn’t solve the problem fundamentally.
On the other hand, the many supporters believe that the implementation of capital punishment can lower the murder rates, while the facts directly dispel the myth. They are afraid of higher crime rates as a result of abolishment of capital punishment. According to FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (), conducted in the US, the murder rates in non-death penalty states dropped from 9.16 percent to 4.12 percent since 1990 to 2003. Besides, the researchers compared the murder rate in non-death penalty states with that in death penalty states, and the murder rate of the latter is higher than the former. The evidence represents that the capital punishment cannot contribute to the peace of society. Thus, from the statistics above, we should get rid of misunderstanding that the abolishment of death penalty would lead to higher crime rates. It’s time to embrace the fact that the non-death penalty society can be more peaceful than death penalty society.
To sum up, people still debate intensely for the fact that if the authorities get the rights to execute a person. The abolishment death penalty can make sure that each citizen has equal human right, eliminate the situation of retribution in Taiwan, and lead to lower to a more peaceful society.
References
Death Penalty Information Center. (2018). Murder Rate of Death Penalty States Compared to Non-Death Penalty States. Retrieved from: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/murder-rates/murder-rate-of-death-penalty-states-compared-to-non-death-penalty-states
United nations(1948) Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved from:
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
公民新聞（2014） 捷運隨機殺人事件 MRT Fruit Knives Massacre, 4 Dead, 24 Injured #Taipei 取自 https://www.peopo.org/news/243139