Throughout human history, capital punishment, or the execution of criminals has been used throughout almost all societies in the world. However today many countries have aborted capital punishment due to various reasons, such as misjudgment of case and human cruelty issues. Although a praiseworthy act to some, capital punishment should still be a viable act as lifelong imprisonment without parole can be too lenient or abused by criminals, and by executing such criminals can justice be truly serve to the society, especially to the victims’ and their families.
Since the death penalty has been abolished in many states, some criminals have shown to be more willing to commit crimes, since end of the day all they get most is lifelong imprisonment. This can be seen in the case of Richard Speck, a famous American serial killer during the 1960s. Speck was found guilty of the murdering of 8 student nurses in Chicago, Illinois’s and initially given the death sentence. However due to the state ruling out capital punishment, Speck was sentenced to 50-100 years of imprisonment per murder, meaning a total of 400-1200 years in jail. However he died of a heart attack few years later and footage of him during his jail time was released. Through the video Speck was seen having sexual intercourse with prison inmates and had female-like breasts from hormone injection, obviously enjoying his time in jail and definitely not remorseful of his crimes. He expressed that should people know how much he is enjoying life in prison, the authorities would have let him out much earlier. Families of victims expressed that they felt unjust for their love one’s horrible death. (Fillippelli, C., N.D.) The sentencing was way too lenient for Speck and all victims obviously felt that justice was not served at all.
When serial murder John Wayne Gacy was executed through lethal injection in 1994 for raping and murdering of 33 teenage boys, the victims’ families and crowds gathered outside cheered as justice was finally served (Ringwood, 1994). Even though there are people who felt that Gacy’s did not suffer a death as bad as any of his victims, it is somewhat comforting to the public that at least a serial murderer like him was finally removed from the face of the Earth. Same goes for the case of Ted Bundy, another famous serial murderer who was executed on the electric chair in 1989, where many people celebrated his execution (Recchi, 1989) Although I personally feel that whether these serial murderers die or not is no longer a question as whatever crime they had committed can never be reversed, should I be a parent I would very much prefer a criminal who is capable of killing to be killed, just as he did to his victims.
To sum up, I personally feel that capital punishment should be legalized in all states but provided there is a systematic and righteous way of investigation in the first place to make sure there is no misjudgment. No doubt it is not right for one to judge upon another’s crimes to decide their right to live, but neither is it right to let future potential criminals to think that it is alright to commit crime simply because people have the idea that no one is capable of putting a benchmark of what is right and what is wrong. To quote the bible, Deut 19:21 - And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
References:-
Fillippelli, C. (N.D.). Richard Speck: Born to Raise Hell. TruTv website. Retrieved on 2011, September 14th from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/speck/index_1.html
Ringwood, J., (1994 May 10th) Serial Killer executed by lethal injection in Illinois. The Deseret News. Page 237-2123.
Recchi, R., (1989, January 25th) Death Of An Evil Man Is No Cause For Mirth. SunSentinel webpage. Retrieved on (2011, September 14th) from http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-01-25/features/8901050452_1_execution-ted-bundy-pleasure
No comments:
Post a Comment