Capital Punishment Is Wrong

To this date, Seven hundred and seventy two criminals in the U.S. alone have been


subject to Capital Punishment. (Executions USA 2002). Using specific examples such as


the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Timothy McVeigh execution, capital


punishment is seen as inhumane, wrong and an unusual punishment.


 


The death penalty is greatly rejected and discouraged by many countries and states.


There are more than one hundred countries who have abolished the death penalty in law or


practice, while the United States has increased the rate of executions and the number of


crimes that are punishable by death (The Death Penalty…2000). Many politicians claim


that they are tough on crimes, but they should spend ninety four percent of criminal justice


money on preventing crimes instead of after the crime was committed (Get the


Facts…2000). Protocol No.6 to the European Convention on Human Rights to Abolish is


an agreement to abolish the death penalty in peacetime. The other two protocols, the


Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and


Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty,


provide for the total abolition of the death penalty but allows states wishing to do so to


retain the death penalty in wartime as an exception (Facts and Figures…2000). There are


several different procedures that are used to execute such as hanging, the electric chair,


gas chamber, lethal injection and the fire squad, which is still used in Idaho and Utah (The


Death Penalty, 2000). The death penalty is abolished for all crimes under the Human


Rights because it is believed to be inhumane, cruel and degrading, but it is still enforced


today. The death penalty should also be abolished because the failure to...