Yesterday I happened to see a debate on Capital punishment on NDTV. Like at most times a debate on abolishing capital punishment would only get back to square one.
The main argument for capital punishment is and has been that the pain of punishment should be proportionate to that of crime.
Definitely we get back to the same question, has anyone got the right to take off the life of another person. Yes the pain of punishment should be proportionate, but life. I would repeat the common counter argument. Put him/her in a single cell for his life.
Counter argument is that punishment the culprit does not only serve as the redressal of the victim’s grievance. Both should be two different issues and in fact hat should be the message for society.
Abolishing capital punishment would increase murder.
That argument is believed to be wrong. Statistics show that it has been quite the reverse in the United States;
“A 1998 FBI report showed that in the south, the region where the death penalty was used most frequently, 292 law enforcement officers were killed in a ten-year period. Whereas, in the north-east, which had fewest executions, the figure was 80.”
Why do waste tax-payers money in keeping murderers alive?
I have heard many complaining that we spend a lot of money for protecting Kasab and Afsal and keeping them alive. Do you know how much the US, a country which has not abolished capital punishment spends on detention services? The US budget request for Detention services for 2013 is $1.6 billion. It is the same value India rupees that has been requested by Pranab Mukharjee for the development all Roads & Bridges across India. Budget, yes is a problem. But at most times all the expenditure is when the convit is being tried. After that he can be changed to high security prisons like the North Branch correction Institute in the United States. This documentary (Worlds toughest Prison :Link --> http://t.co/JKcQYFwF (Not viewable outside UK)) which I saw a few days ago on Channel 5 shows the security levels in the North Branch Prison.
The North Branch Prison has 7 layers of defence. The Cell, its confusing structure, CCTV, Guard Patrol and tower, Microwave sensor, Fence 1, Fence 2. It is IMPOSSIBLE to escape from there. It is also built based on a technology that it can even withstand a good level bomb blast. All notorious bad guys must be kept in such prisons for life without parole. Commercial prisons with advanced revenue model concept might work out to compensate for some the money sent (not from the notorious convicts). There might be other solutions as well
Okay, even if we continue with capital punishment, how barbaric is the method of hanging when most of the rest of the counties have moved on to other forms of death penalties. Most of the states in the United States and China now use Lethal injection as a method.
How is Lethal Injection done?
“Two needles (one is a back-up) are then inserted into usable veins, usually in the inmates arms. Long tubes connect the needle through a hole in a cement block wall to several intravenous drips. The first is a harmless saline solution that is started immediately. Then, at the warden's signal, a curtain is raised exposing the inmate to the witnesses in an adjoining room. Then, the inmate is injected with sodium thiopental - an anesthetic, which puts the inmate to sleep. Next flows pavulon or pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and stops the inmate's breathing. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart. Death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious”
After all, just one question; A person who kills 50 people might not think of Humanness. But if even we dont, then whats the difference between them?
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