The death penalty, an issue of contention among many people, has just been repealed by the New Jersey state senate. This is a pretty big move, since no state has done this since before the 1976 ruling of the supreme court. Now I know lots of people aren't going to agree with me, but I think the death penalty should be abolished completely. The criminal justice system is supposed to punish and rehabilitate prisoners and give justice to the victims and their families. The death penalty fufills just one of those requirements. It does not rehabilitate because, well they are dead, it does not give justice, it gives vengence, and even the punishment is questionable, (does the state really have the right to kill people?). To quote someone's bumper sticker, "why does the government kill people to show us that it is wrong to kill people."
Here is a list of countries with the death penalty:
Afghanistan
Antigua and Barbuda
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Botswana
Burundi
Cameroon
Chad
China (People's Republic)
Comoros
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Cuba
Dominica
Egypt
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Ghana
Guatemala
Guinea
Guyana
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Lesotho
Libya
Malawi
Malaysia
Mongolia
Nigeria
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian Authority
Qatar
Rwanda
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Saudi Arabia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Somalia
Sudan
Swaziland
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Trinidad and Tobago
Uganda
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Should the US really be on the a list with iraq, iran, and north korea? I thought we didn't like them....
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4 comments:
Hmmm very interesting. I wonder why New Jersey is the first one to take the plunge. For whatever reason, I think that you are right to say that this is a huge deal. I predict that we will see other states starting to look at their options regarding the death penalty, whether ultimately this will lead to complete abolishment I do not know. That is a huge list of countries and that in itself says a lot about how the death penalty is pretty accepted in the world. That being said, I do not think that should be used as an excuse for why we still have the death penalty because when has America ever cared about being revolutionary.
That list places us among most of the countries we claim to have risen above. Hmmm, puts the death penalty in perspective. America has taken pride in the fact that it is tough on crime, but the systems still in place seem to be bogging us down in the past. This list makes it apparently clear that the death penalty is archaic; it should be abandoned. Fighting fire with fire is a childish tactic when attempting to teach the immorality of fire. This should have been solved long ago. Hopefully New Jersey will encourage other states to follow suit until the federal government cannot ignore.
This is a very interesting topic and very important. Other states probably will follow New Jersey and start some programs that will eventually end in repealing the death penalty as well. It is interesting how the list against it is so enormous and then there's the U.S. and other countries that we dislike.
hmmmm...besides the fact that the death penalty may be immoral to certain people, the fact is that it is a very costly and inefficient way of serving "justice". I forget the statistic, but one prisoner's execution costs aalloot of money. this money could be used to a better cause, one that doesn't bring death to people!
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