Capital Punishment Must Be Abolished Essay -- Anti-Death Penalty Essay

Capital punishment is used to bring justice to the crimes of murderers in our society, but is it really just? Studies show that the death penalty is cruel, morally wrong, and sometimes painful. It robs the criminal and the public of their humanity and undermines the value of life. The public should come to realize the cruelty of this law, and this form of punishment should be abolished from the government's criminal justice system. Philosopher's first began to question the justice of capital punishment in the eighteenth century. Italian criminologist Cesare Beccaria condemned capital punishment as a grossly inhumane deterrent to crime, and modern critics argue that all killing is wrong and can never be justified, whether it is done by a criminal or the government. When the state executes a criminal while saying murder is wrong, it denies the value of human life (Capital Punishment, 17). They cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing (Deacons of Paterson, 51). All human lives are equally valuable despite chosen moral behavior, but some people think that only the lives of the morally innocent are truly â€Å"human.† Is there a person out there who is truly morally pure and innocent? Under this type of thinking, any person could easily be put into a subhuman category that is condemned. Is there a clear distinction between the two? America was founded on the principle that each individual is an end in h imself. Killing these criminals contradicts the highest moral end of civil society: the human life (Bidinotto, 23). The taking of life is the ultimate possible waste (24). Today, Americans are in search of a tame, reliable, or â€Å"perfect† way of carrying out the death penalty. Methods that have been used were public hangings a... ...A: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000. 31. Holy Bible. Holman Christian Standard Bible. Nashville: Serendipity House Publishers, 2007. Johnson, Robert. â€Å"Execution is Inhumane.† Capital Punishment. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego, C A: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000. 42-49. â€Å"Quotations by Author: Mahatma Gandhi.† The Quotations Page. â€Å"Revenge Has No Place in the Justice System.† Humanism by Joe. The Permanent Deacons of Paterson, New Jersey. â€Å"Capital Punishment Undermines the Sacredness of Life.† Capital Punishment. Ed. Mary E. Williams. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000. 50-52. Zobel, Hiller B. â€Å"The Undying Problem of the Death Penalty.† The Death Penalty. Ed. Hayley R. Mitchell. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2001. 33.