Opposition to Capital Punishment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Opposition to Capital Punishment - Essay ExampleThis trend not only reflects the rise in criminal behavior in corporation but also underscores the governments intolerance to it. In addition, it also graduate(prenominal)lights the fact that expectant punishment is no deterrent to criminal behavior. Though the statistics are alarmingly high they do not reveal the true extent of executions as many are carried out in secret, directly contravening United Nations standards.Every country has its protest laws in convicting and sentencing criminals. With human rights organizations like the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International striving towards the goal of encouraging only countries to recognize the primal right for a human not to be executed, the death penalty issue is slowly changing laws worldwide. More and more countries puzzle relaxed their capital punishment laws and established a moratorium on executions. As of 2003 all countries in the European Unio n who signed the Second Optional Protocol - established in 1991 - have abolished the death penalty (NSWCCL 2006). This protocol is one of the five international human rights treaties that make up the International Bill of Human Rights. Last year, five countries sign it - Bhutan, Greece, Samoa, Senegal and Turkey have abolished the death penalty for all wickednesss bringing the total number of nations to have eradicated the practice to 120, outnumbering those that retain it.For countries that sustain the death penalty, the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) contains article 6 which stipulates minimum standards needed to be adopted in capital punishment cases (NSWCCL 2006). Those standards area) Death penalty should be imposed for the most serious crimes where there is clear and convincing evidence leaving no room for doubt as to the persons guilty of it.b) A mandatary process of appeal and clemency to higher jurisdictional courts should be allowed.c) Pregn ant women, new mothers and the insane should not be executed.d) Juveniles (under 18) should not be executed.e) In all capital punishment cases those sentenced to death should have the right to seek pardon or commutation of sentence and any or both may be granted (OHCHR).While proponents say that the death penalty is the only way to keep society in check, there is little evidence that supports the view that capital punishment is a deterrent to criminal behavior. As of 2005, the rate of recidivism (the act of repeating an offence after experiencing a negative consequence - like prison house time), in the US continues to be over 60% whereas in Britain it is 50% (Wikipedia 2006). While the US focuses on punishment and deterrence to keep potentially unwholesome persons out of society, Britain rehabilitates and educates its prisoners - thus the lower recidivism rate. A previous 1994 statistic suggests out of the 272,111 persons released from prison that year in 15 states in the US, over 67% were re-arrested for a crime within 3 years. 47% were reconvicted and 25% were re-sentenced to prison for a new crime (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2005). Clearly, prison time is no deterrent to offenders. When Canada abolished the dea