Should capital the punishment be brought back?

Why bring back capital punishment?

Some of the tragic events reported daily on the news lead people to ask whether the death penalty should be reintroduced. Many people are not happy with the justice system in the UK and they do not want criminals to be able to repeat their crimes. One way to ensure that is by sentencing criminals who commit serious offences with the death penalty.

What is capital punishment?

Capital punishment or the death penalty is the execution of a person charged for an offence or capital crime. Historically, capital punishment has been used on many people all over the world including Britain but many constitutions have now abolished it. None of the countries in the European Union have retained capital punishment. However, there are still many countries across the world that have kept the death penalty.

What crimes are punishable by the death penalty?

Where capital punishment is still legal, it is mostly reserved for cases of murder. In some countries fraud and espionage are considered to be capital crimes, as are sexual offences such as rape...

How are people executed?

• Lethal injection
• Stoning
• Electric chair
• Hanging
• Execution by firing squad
• Execution by gas chamber
• Beheading

Some countries still using capital punishment

• People's Republic of China
• India
• United States
• Indonesia
• Egypt
• Saudi Arabia
• Somalia

Reasons for and against capital punishment

For

• Criminals are prevented from repeating their crimes.
• It may discourage people committing crimes knowing the harsh sentence they'll receive.
• The public is more likely to help the law enforcement units if they know criminals will not be let out.
• An eye-for-an-eye - Some people think guilty people should be punished according to the severity of their crime.
• Some sources report that within 5 years of the abolition of the death penalty, the number of crimes that were committed more than doubled in the UK. This suggests that capital punishment deters criminals.
• There have been people charged with life sentences that have been let out of prison and have committed further crimes.

Against

• Some people have been wrongly executed.
• A small number of executions have encountered problems when carrying out the death sentence, delaying the death and causing more pain.
• It has been suggested that the psychological trauma that the criminals endure awaiting execution on death row is more severe than the crime itself.
• It has been said that to execute a person is as sinful as the person facing execution.
• Innocent people would not have a chance to be proved innocent if executed.