May 02 2009
The Death Penalty
(This is a paper I wrote for Critical Thinking)
I have always been a supporter of the death penalty; however, I have had to reevaluate my beliefs about capital punishment. For the past few days I have mulled over this topic in my head and have talked about it with several people. I quickly came to realize that I don’t fully understand where I stand on this issue. I began to question the authority that we have as individuals, as to whether we have the right to say who lives and who dies. Because of my faith, I wondered do we really have the right to administer death to another human being. What about redemption? No one is beyond that. Right? I clearly had some research to do.
After much searching and consideration, I have come to conclusion that I do indeed support the death penalty. “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex. 20:13), has been used as an indicator that we should not utilize capital punishment. However, the Hebrew word that was used, ratsach, is translated as murder. There is clearly a difference between murder and killing. In the Encarta Dictionary, killing is described as the act of causing the death of a person or animal. In contrast, the word murder means the crime of killing another person deliberately and not in self-defense or with any other extenuating circumstance recognized by law.
While death of any kind is unfortunate, I believe that certain crimes constitute the death penalty. We as a society have an obligation to make our environment safe for one another and future generations. It is our God given right to exercise authority and elect government officials that will adhere to the laws and see that the laws are upheld. It is also our responsibility to ensure that justice is served and every person accused of a crime gets a fair trial.
According to Enyart (n.d.), “In countries like Saudi Arabia, which enforce a swift and certain death penalty, violent crime is rare.” The death penalty can be a serious deterrent, if used properly. A zero tolerance for violent crimes would be a good remedy to our high crime statistics. The laws that are set forth must be respected and obeyed in order to maintain the quality of life we all want and expect.
Some may argue that capital punishment in inhumane and hateful. I believe that if a person commits a horrific crime, then the criminal must take responsibility for that crime. If that means that the criminal is sentenced to death, then so be it. The only responsibility that we have left if to make sure that the criminal gets a swift and medically supervised execution. After all, we are a civilized people and are not in the same category as the criminal.
In the case of Angel Diaz, it took over 30 minutes for him to die. That should not have happened. While I support the death penalty, I also support human rights; therefore, the criminal must be treated with some degree of dignity even if they are a condemned soul. We must do everything in our power to make sure that an event like this does not happen again. The officials responsible for administering the punishment should be adequately trained and prepared for any possible malfunction.
In closing, I would like to say that my heart goes out to all those involved with these terrible crimes, whether they are family of the victim(s) or family of the accused. My heart also goes out to the criminal who obviously had issues that were not or could not be addressed.
References
Enyart, B. (n.d.), God and the Death Penalty. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from http://www.theologyonline.com/DEATH.HTML
