The Abolishment of capital Punishment
At present, there are thirty-six states in the United States and over one hundred countries that have legislation enforcing capital punishment for crimes of murder or rape. In Canada the death penalty was abolished in 1976, due to the fact that it infringes on the rights of Canadians as documented by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.1 Also, there was much influence from the citizens of the country to debate this very serious topic. Capital punishment regardless of the crime committed is legally wrong, and represents a total disregard for human dignity. By examining issues of discrimination, the severity of the punishment, the fact that retribution is unjustified, and concerns with deterrents, illustrates that the death penalty violates the basic rights of individuals. In viewing the legal rights of citizens particularly in Canada supported by the morality of this judgement, it is easy to see why this punishment no longer exists in Canada. From established statistics it was found that there seems to be a striking correlation between the race of the offenders and the probability of them receiving a death sentence. In capital cases, black defendants statistically receive the death sentence more that the white defendants. This e
One question that arises in most debates is that what happens if the person was wrongly convicted, and an innocent person is sent to death row. In November nineteen-eighty-nine "Toronto lawyer Clayton Ruby told Amnesty International supporters that he has no faith in the infallibly of the Canadian justice system, because it wrongfully condemned innocent people". He also spoke of Donald Marshall a Mic Mac Indian from Nova Scotia as one example of an innocent man who would have been executed if Canada had the death penalty. After eleven years in prison for a murder he did not commit. He was released in nineteen-eighty-two. More recently David Milgaard was released from prison on an order form the Supreme Court. He had spent twenty three years in jail. The Crown had dropped the case against him and he continues to maintain his innocence, as he should have in the first place. 6 For supporters of Capital punishment, retribution is a key argumentive issue. They find it incomprehensible that the victim loses his or her life and that friends and family must live with the loss while the murderer serves a sentence that may end in fifteen years. this whole argument is put to shame when logical and realistic people with moral background come froth to say that retribution is indeed unjust. This was seen when a mother of an eleven year old girl who had been murdered wrote a letter to the House of commons. This letter read, "Just as criminal codes so not sanction the raping of rapists of the burning of arsonists homes, still less is the deliberate taking of life by the state as appropriate punishment for murder".10 The racial discrimination demonstrated by the judges and juries supports the unjust arbitrariness that exists within the legal system. It seems that the likelihood that an individual is executed based on how they are perceived in society and not by the law is quite common. An example of this was the case against O.J. Simpson, who supposedly killed two innocent people. He was found not guilty, with much influence from his reputation in society as a hero. certain circumstances. Let the message be clear and
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2186
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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