Capital Punishment

To die or not to die; this is the question. We have been and continue to face this issue of controversy in our society of whether or not certain criminals should face the death penalty or spend life in prison. A lot people believe that murderers should face the death penalty, especially those families whose loved ones have been killed by these criminals. What is the right answer? Should murderers themselves have their lives taken away from them or do they deserve the chance to redeem themselves?

I, being a very active and faithful Christian, have conflicting viewpoints as to whether the death penalty should be implemented or not. Previous to this class, I was firmly against the death penalty. Due to my moral upbringing and nature from my Christian faith, although the Bible has verses in it in the terms of "an eye for an eye", it also talks about forgiveness and repentance. I believed and still hold somewhat true to my belief in this regard. Some criminals are just like us, but get carried away. They may have a bad day, week, or year and are desperate so they do something out of the ordinary. Maybe all they planned to do was rob a convenience store so that they could have money to feed their family, but things got out of hand and they ended up killing one or more people at the time of the robbery. Does this person deserve to die? Can they not redeem themselves?

I understand that families grieve from losses of murder, but they do eventually need to move on. I'm not saying that these families need to suck it up or anything of that matter, but they cannot hold it against someone else for the rest of their lives. If an individual makes a mistake, whether in a fit of rage or distress, I believe that they should have a chance to right their wrongs and change their ways. For these people I believe that life in prison or a long sentence should be put into effect. They need time to change, and prove that they have changed.

However, for psychopathic serial killers, this poses a different outlook on the issue. Since these individuals are known for manipulation and deceiving others and since these characteristics are forever in their nature, I believe that these individuals should be given the death penalty. Due to various findings on serial killers, the information shows that they rarely will leave their tendencies of killing for pleasure. They will always have the desires inside them, and if let out of prison will act on those desires again. Being held in prison for a life-long sentence would allow these individuals to continue these acts, and even continue other events in prison that the authorities aren't aware of. Richard Speck for example was a great example of how putting to death a murderer would have been a better idea than letting him live for so long. He lived a life of luxury while imprisoned and yet he brutally murdered several women for which he had no remorse for their killings.

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