♥ Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Hello.
My name is Lieu Zheng Hong, and I'm filling in for index number 26 today (as he has 'nothing to post').
I'm here to express my views about capital punishment.
I personally disagree to capital punishment. Capital punishment is usually imposed as the most horrible punishment for an offense, mainly murder. I think life imprisonment is better. (this will be explained later in this post).
First, we need to understand the reason for capital punishment, or punishment in the first place. Punishment is a deterrent and acts as a message, saying "This is wrong. Don't do this again". This punishment deters would-be offenders from committing said crimes, and thus is an effective way of controlling and maintaining public order.
Capital punishment is based on this principle, with the exception of that this punishment has the human trait of revenge, eg. "You kill him, I kill you." However this is completely unacceptable. Punishment should only be carried out for the purpose of acting as a deterrent, and not as to act as revenge for those who are grieving over the murder over their close friend/family.
Of course, one might argue that most punishments inflicted on a offender would cause the close friend/family member some sort of comfort and/or sadistic pleasure at the offender being 'given a taste of his own medicine." Of course, this should not be allowed, mainly being that delighting in the punishments of others is morally agnostic.
However, capital punishment is singularly the worst sort of punishment (death), and thus causes abovermentioned family member/friend to feel a feeling of gratification/revenge stronger than most other punishments inflicted for the offender, thus making the family member/friend become rather sadistic.
So far I have talked about the specific point of view and capital punishment's effects on the victim. Let us now move on to capital punishment's effect on the victim (i.e. the offender).
The offender, of course is killed during capital punishment, so not much can be said on the effects of the victim [offender] . Suffice it to say that the victim experiences the psychological equivalent of torture as the victim sits in his cell, contemplating his own death.
Of course, we also want such offenders to be of use to the society someday -- if the offender is killed, how is the offender going to make amends, and contribute to the economy and well-being of the country? Even life imprisonment (the equivalent of the death penalty in most U.S. states) has a possibility of parole (unless the judge specifically disallows it). In capital punishment, the victim is going to be executed -- pray tell me how he is going to get a chance to make any amends?To summarise:
The family member/close friend of the victim will be negatively affected after knowing about the offender's said punishment. This sadism, and 'reverse happiness' might have future negative effects and cause psychotic traits in some, especially if the family member/close friend has been deeply grieved about the murder of the said family member.
The victim [ offender ] might suffer intense psychological torture after knowing that he/she is going to be executed. (Of course, one might argue that since the victim is going to die anyway, it does not matter much).
This is why I believe against capital punishment.
--Lieu Zheng Hong
Class Secretary of Sec 1I2
Singapore, 19th Feb 2009, Wednesday
Blogged by us @ 10:22:00 AM
