The death penalty fulfills a preventive function, but it is also very clearly a form of revenge. It is an especially severe form of punishment because it is so final. The human life is ended and the executed person is deprived of the opportunity to change, to restore the harm done or compensate for it.

--Dalai Lama

I live in a world, which tells me that I can be told whether I have a right to live or not. Mentally I may not be healthy and may be unaware of my actions, but society can still snatch my inherent right to live. Is this a fair world? Can I not redeem myself?

Capital Punishment remains the highest judgment that can be given in any judicial system. It is said to deter crime, provide justice and also ensure public safety. For a second if we believe Capital Punishment even achieves what it sets out to do, why are there still such high crime rates all over the world?

China, with a quarter of the worlds population carries out approximately 90% of the worlds executions. Yet has its crime rate deterred? "Expert after expert and study after study have emphasized and emphasized the lack of correlation between the threat of the death penalty and the occurrence of violent crime.” In most cases like Saddam Husseins execution capital punishment was just a political gimmick, a revenge seeking act; perhaps a way for the US to prove its superiority. Yet when you think about it, does it even satisfy revenge? There seem like a gazillion other alternatives available, that make the idea of capital punishment superfluous. Wouldn’t it make more sense to force these individuals to “pay back” to society? Compensate or redeem his sins? Would it not make more sense to make these individuals realize their crimes?

As increasingly countries join the ranks of those who have abolished capital punishment; my belief is reaffirmed that Capital Punishment is a chimerical ideal punishment; a barbaric remnant of an uncivilized society. It is immoral in principle, and unfair and discriminatory in practice. And as a remedy for crime, it has no purpose and no effect.