Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment: True Justice or True Violation?
By Luis M. Rincón

Crime has been damaging our society for many years. Many people have been murdered innocently because of the lack of justice to stop criminals committing these acts. Criminals caught by murder are normally sentenced to life imprisonment, but it seems that this sentence is not enough to make these people change their mind.They would probably kill again if they had the chance, and in the case that they get arrested, they still have the conviction that they will live, pent but alive. Maybe this possibility make murderers think there is no big deal by killing somebody if still you will keep on living. However, there do exist a possible way to make them stop and realize that murdering somebody can be lethal even forthemselves; this can be possible by applying the Capital Punishment.
Capital punishment or death sentence is just a type of punishment for criminals, but not for any kind of criminal. This act is applied on people who commit murdering; people who kill innocents for pleasure, anger or madness. Many people surely think that by using capital punishment we are taking somebody else’s life in the sameway that a murderer does (they see no difference); and they think that this is just another way of murdering. The truth is that this is not the only purpose of capital punishment; the main purpose is to prevent people perpetrate these crimes. Somehow, prevention by punishment could be a good way to avoid future crimes; by preventing them, social welfare would increase. (Spagnoli, 2009)
How wouldcapital punishment prevent future crimes?
Society is governed by the laws imposed in the constitution. Any man who does not respect them will be punished. Thus, if a murderer is condemned to death sentence, the rest of society will receive a message; the authority’s message, which makes clear that this kind of behavior is immoral and unacceptable and that it will be punished to the full extent oflaw. Thus, criminals and normal people will understand or even fear the fact of committing murdering; people will comprehend that morality is an important value to carry on in life. Of course this is not the only way of inducing moral values in a society, but it can help to make some people (especially criminals) realize the importance of respect for other’s life.
Capital punishment or any othertype of punishment can be educational and can prevent future crimes as well. Society would be educated about the consequences of perpetrating certain crimes by doing certain things to the criminals. They would be aware of not making any of the crimes that are punished with death or something painful. Thus, punishment would reinforce the norms and would make people internalize the value of being agood citizen. Criminals would fear the fact of being killed if they are caught.
Cause and effect
Offenders keep growing and keep committing crimes and murders probably because they just do not care about the consequences if they go to prison in a place where capital punishment is not applied. A life imprisonment sentence may not be enough to make other criminals or future murderers abstain ofkilling people. Anyway they will live and the victim will remain dead; just like they wanted. That is why the death penalty has a very effective cause-effect relationship between the crime and the punishment. The criminal would never kill again and the deter effect would function effectively. The idea is that the punishment must be severe enough to counter the pleasures that an assassin would feelby killing somebody (and the executed offender definitely will not feel anything anymore), as well as other potential murderers will fear the fact of committing the crime as a result of the punishment. Sociologist Ernest van den Haag said “What is feared most deters most”; “Once in prison, virtually all convicted murderers seek to avoid execution by appealing to reduce their sentence to life in...