Death penalty should be re-introduced in Mauricius. Discuss

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Death penalty should be re-introduced in Mauricius. Discuss. Essay de 9 pages en anglais



The passionate debate over the abolition or re-introduction of death penalty ? considered as our society's ultimate punishment ? is most recent in our history. For, in ancient civilizations like the Babylonians, the Romans and the Egyptians, death penalty was considered as a widespread rule of ?an eye for an eye? (Bender & Leone, 1991, p.16). But during recent years, with the advent of worldwide resolutions concerning human rights, like one of the United Nations declaring that: ?Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person? (The General Assembly of the UN, Art. 3), such controversy between supporters and opponents of death penalty is still an ongoing and burning issue in Mauritius and all around the world. Basically, death penalty- at times also referred to as capital punishment- means the ?execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a criminal offence? (Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia).

Extraits

[...] (Number of words : 2081) REFERENCE LIST Albany, New York. The death penalty. Retrieved on March from www.encyclopaedia.com/doc/ Amnesty International Publications, (1989), When the State kills .Death Penalty v. Human Rights, London, United Kingdom: Amnesty Int. Publications Amnesty International Publications, (1989), When the State kills .Death Penalty v. Human Rights, In Ehrlich I., deterrent effect of capital punishment: a question of life and death”, American Economic review, vol 65, No.3 (June 1975), pages 398-414, London, United Kingdom: Amnesty Int. Publications Bender, D.L., Leone, B. [...]

[...] Before deciding as to whether the re-introduction of death penalty is justifiable or not, an in-depth and objective analysis of both opposing viewpoints is most imperative. Among one of the primary contentions in favour of death penalty is that it is a powerful and effective deterrent (Bender & Leone p 41). In other words, severe crimes warrant severe punishments and capital punishment is believed to deter others from committing such crimes. A statistical study carried out by U.S. Economist Issac Ehrlich between 1932 and 1970 has favoured this contention that homicides and executions tend to move in opposite directions (Amnesty Int. [...]

[...] Moreover, supporters of death penalty affirm the right to life by punishing those who violate it in the strictest form. Capital punishment is viewed as a self-defence weapon in some countries where criminality has attained such a peak that the only panacea in saving future lives of their citizens would be by permanently incapacitating those criminals. Through the death penalty, “society is sending the message that life is valuable and that the price of taking a life is said Jacob Sullum, former Editor of US Magazine (Bender & Leone p 56). [...]

[...] Furthermore, those who do not cheer the move to apply death penalty claim that it is an irrevocable punishment and that it can lead to the execution of an innocent person, arising out of an error of justice. In his article “Casting the First Stone”, Professor of Philosophy, Lloyd Steffen stated: innocent man may be a victim of lies, deceit, perjured testimony, false witnesses” (Bender & Leone p 65). That is, an innocent may be executed and then the truth is found out because our system of justice and the detection and investigation processes of crimes are fallible. [...]

[...] such controversy between supporters and opponents of death penalty is still an ongoing and burning issue in Mauritius and all around the world. Basically, death penalty- at times also referred to as capital punishment- means the “execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a criminal offence” (Britannica Concise Encyclopaedia). In some countries, it usually sanctions capital crimes such as murder as well as violent sexual crimes, treason, war crimes and acts of terrorism amongst others. [...]