Every now and then the topic of death penalty pops up again. Just today the issue of capital
punishment appeared in the media once again because of the botched lethal injection in
Oklahoma, USA. During the injection one of the Clayton Lockett’s veins ruptured what
resulted in halting the execution after 20 minutes. It resulted in preventing the drugs from
taking full effect. Clayton, who was sentenced to death for murder in 1999, died later the
same day on heart attack. And it is not the first time when execution did not go smoothly.
Just in January in Ohio, USA, Gary Strauss, another killer sentenced to death, was dying
in agony after not-so-fast-lethal injection. It turned out that new untested mixture of drugs
was used. Those stories raise questions if US Constitution and guarantees “against cruel
and unusual punishment" are being abided.
I would not like to start the discussion about capital punishment, because probably
you are familiar with most of arguments, both for and against. However, if you are
interested, you can have a look at them once again here: http://deathpenalty.procon.org/
view.resource.php?resourceID=002000
In this article, I would like to have a look at the issue from a slightly different, statistical
angle.
Interestingly, in 2012 there were only 22 countries all over the world which carried out
executions: Afghanistan (14), Bangladesh (1), Belarus (3+), China (2000+), Gambia (9),
India (1), Iran (314+), Iraq (129+), Japan (7), North Korea (6+), Pakistan (1), Palestine (6),
Republic of China (6), Saudi Arabia (79+), Somalia (6+), South Sudan (5+), Sudan (19+),
UAE (1), USA (43), Yemen (28+).
After having a quick look at the list, we can easily draw a few conclusions:
1. Most of countries which allow for the capital punishment, are non-democratic ones
(Belarus, China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, UAE, Yemen) or it is hard to
assess its actual political structure (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan)
2. Moreover, apart from USA, Japan and Republic of China, they belong to the Developing
World.
3. Mainly, they are located in Africa and Asia
4. Civil and women rights are hugely violated in those countries
5. Leading religion is Islam
Summarizing, highly developed countries are prone to resign from capital punishment.
What is the reason of that? Why haven’t USA and Japan withdrawn from the death penalty
yet? Can you see more dependencies apart from the listed above?
punishment appeared in the media once again because of the botched lethal injection in
Oklahoma, USA. During the injection one of the Clayton Lockett’s veins ruptured what
resulted in halting the execution after 20 minutes. It resulted in preventing the drugs from
taking full effect. Clayton, who was sentenced to death for murder in 1999, died later the
same day on heart attack. And it is not the first time when execution did not go smoothly.
Just in January in Ohio, USA, Gary Strauss, another killer sentenced to death, was dying
in agony after not-so-fast-lethal injection. It turned out that new untested mixture of drugs
was used. Those stories raise questions if US Constitution and guarantees “against cruel
and unusual punishment" are being abided.
I would not like to start the discussion about capital punishment, because probably
you are familiar with most of arguments, both for and against. However, if you are
interested, you can have a look at them once again here: http://deathpenalty.procon.org/
view.resource.php?resourceID=002000
In this article, I would like to have a look at the issue from a slightly different, statistical
angle.
Interestingly, in 2012 there were only 22 countries all over the world which carried out
executions: Afghanistan (14), Bangladesh (1), Belarus (3+), China (2000+), Gambia (9),
India (1), Iran (314+), Iraq (129+), Japan (7), North Korea (6+), Pakistan (1), Palestine (6),
Republic of China (6), Saudi Arabia (79+), Somalia (6+), South Sudan (5+), Sudan (19+),
UAE (1), USA (43), Yemen (28+).
After having a quick look at the list, we can easily draw a few conclusions:
1. Most of countries which allow for the capital punishment, are non-democratic ones
(Belarus, China, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, UAE, Yemen) or it is hard to
assess its actual political structure (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan)
2. Moreover, apart from USA, Japan and Republic of China, they belong to the Developing
World.
3. Mainly, they are located in Africa and Asia
4. Civil and women rights are hugely violated in those countries
5. Leading religion is Islam
Summarizing, highly developed countries are prone to resign from capital punishment.
What is the reason of that? Why haven’t USA and Japan withdrawn from the death penalty
yet? Can you see more dependencies apart from the listed above?
Well, Americans as a nation tend to overreact to a lot of things. One child ate Kinder Surprise as a whole, with a toy inside - they banned Kinder Surprise. Few children got high on a poisonous plant - destroy those plants everywhere! Maybe they are very prone to media, and television or newspapers have the bigger power than we here can even imagine, but when a news about a child murderer pops up, most of Americans would scream "kill him too, brutally!" over their couches. It's the easiest way I can descibe their mentality, in reality it's more serious and difficult to catch, but you get the idea.
ReplyDeleteDeath penalty is 100% accurate method of eliminating extremely dangerous criminals from society ( I don't believe that serving punishment and releasing them after 10/15/25/more years can do any good for rest of people ). Even though it is not democratic way to solve problems it's effective...
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion US is kind of hypocritical because they kill thousands people more in "wars for freedom" and executing "high-risk-profile" potential terrorists in prisons. I think it's a farce...
What is the reason of that?
ReplyDeleteBecause people don't like to talk about death in general. Death penalty - naah I do't want any of that on my TV.
Why haven’t USA and Japan withdrawn from the death penalty yet?
I don't like Your tone. What do You mean yet? I hope they don't, otherwise death penalty will die worldwide. Why am I for death penalty? Cause it freakin' works. Like a charm. It makes some bad people even worse? sure, sometimes. But it takes these people and eliminate them from society. I don't want my taxes to support criminals. Make them work for food.
Can you see more dependencies apart from the listed above?
If death penalty would be painful, You would see how many people would stay away from crime.
Well, but what if any of the convicted people eventually turns out innocent? And we have already killed him? Huge mistakes has happened and will happen...
ReplyDelete@armandstanczak: I agree with the statement for making prisoners work for food it is no holidays. But think USA and Japan should withdraw from the capital punishment, because of the tiny possibility that conviction might have been made by mistake
I find capital punishment barbaric. I am a radical opponent of such sentence. We, people, have no right to decide who lives, and who dies! If someone is a dangerous murderer – sentence him to life. And the argument that our tax money keeps him alive in prison, does not convince me to change my mind.
ReplyDeleteTomek Kerber, I agree! False judgments happen. What do statistics say?
Even if it’s only 0.0001%, even if one innocent person is executed, we cannot allow it! Human life is invaluable. Why is there still death sentence in America? They must be backward barbarians. It’s a huge, diverse country. Some states, however, are not that developed and modern. They are way behind us.
Well there are some cases o criminals that should be dealt once and for all, but I think that you can't be always 100% sure and in those rare occasions the sentence may be innacurate and someone innocent may die.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the reason of that?
Like Armand said, who likes to talk about death? I don't see anyone who bring that topic at the dinner table.
Why haven’t USA and Japan withdrawn from the death penalty yet?
Everyone has their reasons. Maybe for them it works like charm, and why would you stop something that works? I don't like that, you might not like it either, but these are not our countries and we shouldn't meddle in other people affairs.
I think that highly developed countries have more respect for human rights and life. People in such countries realise that people cannot play "God" and decide wheteher take someones life or not. Sometimes when I hear about some horrible crimes that someone hac commited I wish we had that punishement in Poland but then the reflections comes. And I am not so sure any more. We hear a lot about those who spent a lot time in prison but they were all in all innocent. New evidence were discovered and so on. We as humas are not obligated to devide if someone could live or die. We should absolutley change way our prisons work but it is a totally different subject. I tottaly agree with @Martyna about the US…
ReplyDeleteWhat is the reason of that? Why haven’t USA and Japan withdrawn from the death penalty yet?
ReplyDeleteBecause politicians which would propose such solution would not gain full support. Sometimes there are situations where sociaty in overall wants prisoner's blood and pain beacuse he/she did something really bad like raped and killed a child. I'm not pro the death penalty, but I'm also against paying for their long life in prison. In my opinion working for the society should be mandatory.
I think they're slowly resigning from this kinds of punishment because they're just highly developed countries, so they must've human emotions and reactions still, after all.
ReplyDeleteIn case of USA, I think they haven't yet change this, because it's difficult and takes some time to change the law (maybe even constitution, which is not so simple), and also I think there are still many enthusiasts of capital punishment so it will not be removed in the nearest future.