Do you know a man called Troy Davis? He was a convict in death row in America. He was accused of murder, however the surprising fact that startled people all over the world was that there was no physical or concrete evidence indicating he was the murderer. The victim was shot, but no gun was found. Nevertheless, only based on 9 witness's testimony, he was found guilty and was sentenced to death because the state he was living adopted death penalty. 7 witnesses of them confessed that they were forced to testify, however the confession was too late. It was after Troy Davis's execution in 2011. Many people mourned for his death, for there was hope and possibility that he could have lived if he was not executed for a little more time or if the state didn't adopt death penalty. His death threw a heavy question about the modern society's policy which is death penalty. If he was an innocent man, he is a representative victim of the death penalty. Not only the victims that could be resulted by the mistakes made in the process of death penalty such as Troy Davis in this case, but adopting death penalty doesn't have enough advantages than not adopting it. Therefore, the death penalty is right to be and should be abolished.
Death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is a punishment of a crime regarding lives of people that puts a criminal into death. Currently 58 nations adopts capital punishment, 98 countries have abolished it , 7 have abolished it for ordinary crimes only, and 35 have are not using it practically. We can consider most of the countries are abolitionist and 90% of all executions are performed in Asia. According to death penalty information center, death penalty states have higher murder rates than non-death penalty states. Murder rates in non-death penalty states grows down more and more each year, faster than death penalty states so that the murder rate percent difference in two areas increase each year. This is the general background of contemporary death penalty. As you can see, death penalty is an old-fashioned vice that people should pursue not adopting it. If people ignore the following arguments of mine, it would lead to generation of more innocent victims of the system.
Death penalty has too many negative effects than positive effects. Actually, if seen in a general perspective, people can say there is no positive effect. Given this, death penalty is a very irrational system that could be used in modern society. This is because the original purpose of death penalty was too ancient; revenge or eliminating dissidents. However, revenge cannot help the victim or the victim's family or the criminal or whoever related. This cannot help or solve anything. Also, in contemporary society, eliminating dissidents only exist in societies of dictators. Therefore, death penalty is inappropriate for us to use in modern society.
People's right is also a very important social issue. For hundreds of years people fought and earned their rights however in the death penalty system we ignore such rights of criminals. They are the same humans as innocent person and thus should have equal rights. It is inevitable to treat them differently from the innocent ones since they have committed crimes however that doesn't mean we can throw away their rights in the name of law. We should also consider the rights of the physicians that work in the death penalty execution sites. When doctors become doctors, they make oath called the Hippocratic Oath which includes basic ethical foundation of doctors which is always working for the health of people. However, by making them perform the execution, we are forcing them to break the oath and possibly giving them unforgettable memory of guilt. That is violating the rights of the physicians. Whether they chose to work doesn't matter because they might be subtly forced such as the financial circumstances. Considering these, we should abolish death penalty if we care for people's rights.
My opponent's representative argument is that the death penalty prevents crimes by making the would-be-criminals afraid of the anticipated punishment, which is death in this case, of their behaviors. This could be true if we consider the possible criminals that are only brave enough to commit crimes when their lives are guaranteed to be safe. However, according to the survey conducted by death penalty information center, as I mentioned before, the visible result is actually opposite of their argument; death penalty states have higher murder rates than non-death penalty states. Murder rates in non-death penalty states grows down each year and that reduction faster than death penalty states so the murder rate percent difference in two areas increased each year. This shows that the opponent to the abolishment of the death penalty has already failed to meet their anticipations and is keep insisting it irrationally hoping it would work someday.
We are living in a rational world. As humans evolved, they became intelligent. We became able to know that logic, reason, and effects should be our goals in our lives in order to survive. However, there are still some things that cannot be explained irrationally. Those things could be good to remain unreasonable such as love, sacrifice, and other emotions, but we cannot ignore the vices, the things that are just too old and too stiff to follow up the growth of the consciousness of people. Then what we should do to them is not letting them be. That is actually not different from blinding yourself while a man in front of you is in danger, calling for your help. If we let the death penalty exist, victims of this old-fashioned vice system will eventually come out. Victims such as Troy Davis will keep coming up. We should not let that happen. We should prevent that from happening while we can by abolishing irrational death penalty.
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