Moral_Issues__Death_Penalty

Moral Issues: Death Penalty Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offense or a capital crime. Some jurisdictions that practice capital punishment restrict its use to a small number of criminal offences, principally treason and murder. In recent years in the United States, these have also included killings that occur during the course of some other violent felony, such as robbery or rape. Prisoners who have been sentenced to death are usually kept segregated from other prisoners in a special part of the prison pending their execution. In some places this segregated area is known as "Death Row." Historically, and still today under certain systems of law--the death penalty was applied to a wider range of offenses, including robbery or theft. It has also been frequently used by the military for looting, insubordination, mutiny, etc. The term "capital" comes from the Latin capitalis, meaning "head." Thus, capital punishment is the penalty for a crime so severe that it deserves decapitation (losing one's head). Today most countries have banned the death penalty but over 60% of the world's population live in countries where executions take place. The four most populor countries in the world that still use the death penalty are the United States, China, India, and Indonesia. Support for the death penalty varies widely from nation to nation, and it can be a highly contentious political issue, particularly in democracies that use it. A majority of adults in the United States appear to support its continuance (though like most political issues, the numbers vary widely depending on the exact question asked), but a highly vocal, organised minority of people in that country do not, and non-governmental organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch lobby against it globally. In Taiwan, the death penalty appears to have large amounts of public support, and there is little public movement to abolish it. By contrast, in most of Western Europe, public opinion majoritarily regards capital punishment as barbaric and there is little public support for its reinstatement. In countries where it has been abolished, debate is sometimes revived by particularly brutal murders, though few countries have brought it back after abolition. According to Amnesty International's annual report on official judicial execution, in 2003 there were 1,146 executions in 28 countries. 88% of the deaths occurred in five countries. The People's Republic of China (PRC) carried out 726 executions. Iran executed 108 people, the United States 65, Vietnam 64, and Saudi Arabia 52. From 1990 to 2003, the average number of executions per year was 2,242 as reported by Amnesty. The PRC has executed at least 20,000 people between 1990 and 2001, with 1,781 people executed between April and July 2001 in a "Strike Hard" crime crackdown. Phyllis Schlafly provides a much higher count of executions in China than Amnesty International: "...every year China has nearly 10,000 death penalty cases that result in immediate execution. That is five times more than all death penalty cases from other nations combined. China's executions have always been a closely guarded state secret, but these totals were revealed by Chen Zhonglin, a National People's Congress delegate." According to the United Nations Secretary-General's quinquennial report on capital punishment, the highest per capita use of the death penalty is in Singapore, with a rate of 13.57 executions per one million population for the period of 1994 to 1999. The death penalty is metted out for what is considered the most serious of offences. Out of 138 persons sentenced in the period from 1999 to 2003, 110 were for drug-related offences, while the rest for murder and arms-related offences. Executions by hanging occur on Friday mornings in Changi prison. They are seldom publicized. In most countries that have capital punishment, it is used to punish only murder or war-related crimes. In some countries, like the People's Republic of China, some non-violent crimes, like drug and business related crimes, are punishable by death. Most democratic countries today have abolished the death penalty, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, almost all of Europe, and much of Latin America, though in Honduras there is a political debate raging about whether, having been abolished in 1956, it should be restored. Among western countries, the first to abolish capital punishment was Portugal. The last execution in Portugal took place in 1846, and this punishment was officially and definitely abolished in 1867. In Italy, capital punishment for common offences and for military offences in peace time was abolished in 1947. In 1994 capital punishment was abolished also for military offences in war time, so since 1994 no crime can be punished with death in Italy. The last execution in the Republic of Ireland took place in 1954 and in 1990 capital punishment was removed from the penal code. A heated debate on whether to reintroduce capital punishment led in 2001 to a referendum which amended the Irish Constitution to make reintroduction of the death penalty unconstitutional. The Republic of Ireland thereby became one of the first countries in the world to constitutionally ban the death penalty by popular referendum, with Switzerland having constitutionally forbidden it in 1999, though it had been abolished "in time of peace" in 1937. The Dutch Parliament in 1983 amended the Dutch Constitution, adding that 'Capital punishment may not be imposed.' Capital Punishment during peacetime in the Netherlands was already abolished in 1870. The last execution in the United Kingdom occurred in 1964 (see Capital punishment in the United Kingdom). Russia has had a moratorium on the death penalty since 2001. In all, 80 countries have abolished it altogether, 22 countries have not executed someone in the last ten years, and 14 only have the death penalty for "exceptional crimes" (e.g., war crimes). Many other countries retain it, especially in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean, including Japan and the United States, with a total of 78 countries still having the death penalty. The most comprehensive source lists less than 15,000 people executed in the United States or its predecessors between 1608 and 1991. (http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution.htm) More accurate statistics list 4661 executions in the U.S. in the period 1930-2002 with about 2/3 of the executions occurring in the first twenty years. (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm) Additionally the U.S. Army executed 160 soldiers between 1930 and 1967. The last U.S. Navy execution was in 1849. (See also: Capital punishment in the United States) Only seven countries practice the death penalty for juveniles, that is criminals aged under 18 at the time of their crime. Nearly all actual executions for juvenile crime take place in the USA, although, due to the slow process of appeals, no one under age 19 has been executed recently. (http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution.htm) (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php'scid=27&did=206) In the United States the death penalty cannot be applied to criminals under age 16 and higher ages are legislated in many states. In the United States and ancestor bodies politic since 1642, an estimated 364 juvenile offenders have been put to death by states and the federal government. Although the People's Republic of China accounts for the vast majority of executions in the world, it does not allow for the executions of those under 18. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php'scid=27&did=206) Execution of those aged under age 18 has occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Iran since 1990. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php'scid=27&did=208) The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbids capital punishment for juveniles, has been signed by all countries except the USA and Somalia, so it is likely that legally, the execution of persons for crimes committed as children (as defined by the Convention) will be restricted to the USA. There are a number of international conventions prohibiting the death penalty, most notably the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Sixth Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, such conventions only bind those that are party to them; customary international law permits the death penalty. Several international organizations have made the abolition of the death penalty a requirement of membership, most notably the European Union and the Council of Europe. The European Union requires outright abolition of the death penalty by states wishing to join; the Council of Europe also requires this, but is willing to accept a moratorium as an interim measure. Thus, while Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, and practices the death penalty in law, it has not made use of it since becoming a member of the Council. The same was also true of Turkey, but in August 2002, as a move towards EU membership, the death penalty was removed from law as well as practice, but only during peacetime. On November 12, 2003, Turkey ratified the Sixth Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. In January 2004 Turkey signed the 13th Protocol, intending to abolish the death penalty completely, including during wartime (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3384667.stm). In May 2004 Turkey amended its constitution, removing the death penalty for all crimes. As a result of this, Europe is a continent free of the death penalty in practice (all states having ratified the Sixth Protocol), with the sole exception of Belarus, which is not a member of the Council of Europe. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has also been lobbying for the Council of Europe observer states who practice the death penalty (namely the United States and Japan) to be told to abolish it also or lose their observer status. The tenets between the worldview and Catholic social teaching are really similar. Most of society seems to see that capital punishment is the wrong punishment and should not be used anywhere. Society believes in the human rights of the criminals and that they should be given a different punishment, we are taught by Catholic social teaching that the everybody has the right to live and the right to freedom. The people that are trying to fight against capital punishment are also arguing that a reformed criminal can make a morally valuable contribution to society, the Catholic church teaches that we should forgive, even our enemies, as that is the way to true peace. Catholic social teaching tells us that we should care for human life and dignity, as human life is sacred, society seems to follow in the same route as they believe it is unethical and cruel. This gives hope that society is seeing that an eye for an eye is something that we should not live by and that it is better to forgive. The populous our society are probably in favour of the death penalty as it costs money to keep criminals in prison, and it costs them money to pay for the treatment. It will for sure cost the government a lot less money to just have them given the death sentence so they don’t have to pay for anything. Most of the population agree that capital punishment is not the right punishment concerning human rights and follow the Catholic social teaching in that it is inhumane and not morally right to commit murder in the name of justice which is exactly what capital punishment is. Part D: *USCCB - (SDWP) - Seven Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Punishment Retrieved January 13, 2011, from http://usccb.org/sdwp/projects/sevenresponsibility/excerpt *Eagle Form - We Don't Need Busybody Foreign Judges Retrieved January 13, 2011, from http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2004/apr04/04-04-14.html Capital punishment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved January 13, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment Amnesty International - The Vatican City Retrieved January 13, 2011, from web.amnesty.org