Definition of death penalty

In the judicial sphere, a penalty is called that punishment that imposes a authority competent person who has been found guilty of committing a crime.

Now, that punishment that is imposed will be more or less severe, depending on the type of crime committed. Thus, whoever steals a wallet in the middle of transport The public will receive a looser penalty than one who has killed a person with treachery and premeditation.

Punishment imposed by a judge on a person who has committed a serious crime and which consists of assassinating him through various methods

The death penalty is a punishment established by the opinion of a judge or a court based on what is stipulated by the law of the corresponding jurisdiction and whose main mission is to punish with death whoever has committed a very serious offense, such as a rape, a crime, among others.

The death penalty, also known as execution or capital punishment, is classified in the group of corporal penalties, since the punishment will have a direct effect on the body of whoever is sanctioned, that is, whoever convicted by a judge or court with the death penalty for having committed a serious offense will be punished with the death.

The firing squad, electric chair, lethal injection, hanging, decapitation and gas chamber are some of the most common modalities when it comes to specifying the punishment of the death penalty.

Although, we must say that over time some of these modalities have been relegated due to their virulence and then, in those countries or jurisdictions that admit the death penalty, lethal injection is applied, which consists of injecting a deadly substance into the prisoner intravenously in order to end his lifetime.

This type of grief has a truly ancient origin, dating back thousands of years, approximately to the seventeenth century BC. with the call Talion Law, the famous eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and what does the Code by Hammurabi.

Meanwhile, many famous personalities throughout history have known how to defend it and support its realization, such is the case of intellectuals and philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Saint Thomas Aquinas, among others.

Voices for and against

Anyway and despite this support that is sanction has had throughout history, today many countries that contemplated it have abolished for considering it as a absolutely barbarous method that directly attacks the human rights and the dignity of people despite the atrocities that criminals have committed and that it is thought that they deserve death for them.

The main questions that the death penalty currently receives are from two points of view, on the one hand, as those who apply it are human beings, it is feared that they may make mistakes and then condemn and kill an innocent, and on the other hand, there is a philosophical or religious question that contemplates that only God can give or take life, not life. mens.

Of the countries with a solid democratic system that still apply the death penalty today, the United States stands out, being that it is applied to punish many serious crimes in the states that accept it, California, Nevada, Arizona, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina, among others.

Despite criticism from organisms human rights and other institutions local and international, the death penalty remains an option in the United States.

We have already seen that the main argument of those who condemn this practice is its direct attack on human rights and the dignity of people, even if they are criminals.

Meanwhile, those who support their practice also assert their arguments to defend it ...

One of the arguments in favor is linked to the proportionality of the crime, that is, the punishment that is applied to someone for committing an action contrary to the law must be proportional to the damage caused. Thus, if someone killed another, then they must receive the punishment of dying in their own flesh.

On the other hand, we find an argument linked to the just mentioned Talion law and that considers it fair that whoever carried out a criminal action must suffer the same evil that he has generated with his practice.

And finally, strong reasons are often heard such as that for certain cases the existence of the death penalty will deter the commission of crimes or prevent recidivism. Or the argument that it is the only way that will allow the restoration of social peace by eliminating those who put it at risk with their deviant behaviors.

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