An Eye For An Eye
When someone takes a life, the balance of justice is disturbed. Unless that balance is restored, society succumbs to a rule of violence. Only the taking of the murderer's life restores the balance and allows society to show convincingly that murder is an intolerable crime, which will be punished in kind.
If your loved one were killed, would you want the killer to suffer the same way? Proponents of the death penalty say that it is an important tool for preserving law and order, deters crime, and costs less than life imprisonment. They argue that retribution or “an eye for an eye” honors the victim, helps console-grieving families, and ensures that the perpetrators of heinous crimes never have an opportunity to cause future tragedy.
For families, they may feel relieved once the killer of their loved one is put to death. They feel justice and relief. Society has also used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful action. Since society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. If murders are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life.
Retribution has its basis in religious values, which have historically maintained that it is proper to take an "eye for an eye" and a life for a life. Although the victim and the victim's family cannot be restored to the status, which preceded the murder, at least an execution brings closure to the murderer's crime (and closure to the ordeal for the victim's family) and ensures that the murderer will create no more victims.
There are several examples where families are for death penalty and seek to find the justice that they deserve. For example, a case in 1991 was of a young mother who was rendered helpless and made to watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then mutilated and killed. The killer should not lie in some prison with three meals a day, clean sheets, cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some killers just need to be executed himself or herself.
For the most cruel and heinous crimes, the ones for which the death penalty is applied, offenders deserve the worst punishment under our system of law, and that is the death penalty. Any lesser punishment would undermine the value society places on protecting lives.
If your loved one were killed, would you want the killer to suffer the same way? Proponents of the death penalty say that it is an important tool for preserving law and order, deters crime, and costs less than life imprisonment. They argue that retribution or “an eye for an eye” honors the victim, helps console-grieving families, and ensures that the perpetrators of heinous crimes never have an opportunity to cause future tragedy.
For families, they may feel relieved once the killer of their loved one is put to death. They feel justice and relief. Society has also used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful action. Since society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. If murders are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life.
Retribution has its basis in religious values, which have historically maintained that it is proper to take an "eye for an eye" and a life for a life. Although the victim and the victim's family cannot be restored to the status, which preceded the murder, at least an execution brings closure to the murderer's crime (and closure to the ordeal for the victim's family) and ensures that the murderer will create no more victims.
There are several examples where families are for death penalty and seek to find the justice that they deserve. For example, a case in 1991 was of a young mother who was rendered helpless and made to watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then mutilated and killed. The killer should not lie in some prison with three meals a day, clean sheets, cable TV, family visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some killers just need to be executed himself or herself.
For the most cruel and heinous crimes, the ones for which the death penalty is applied, offenders deserve the worst punishment under our system of law, and that is the death penalty. Any lesser punishment would undermine the value society places on protecting lives.