Death Becomes Us: Is The Death Penalty Right?

The punishment half of crime and punishment has always been meant to be a deterrent.  Since people started living in groups we have believed that if someone does something wrong and he is punished, and the punishment is publicly known, then that punishment will stop the perpetrator and many other people from repeating that act.  That theory has been in practice since the inception of civilization.

The death penalty is thought to be the ultimate deterrent.  In the United States we reserve this form of punishment for those who commit only the most heinous crimes.  Murder is one of the crimes whose penalty is usually death.  There are two distinct problems associated with state administered executions.

First is the act itself.  There are many people who believe that state executions are murder themselves.  If we look at the definition of murder it may give us some insight.  The Free Dictionary defines murder as the unlawful killing of one human by another, especially with premeditated malice. 

If we dissect that definition we see that almost all of it applies to state executions.  The convicted person is killed.  The killing was done by another human.  It was premeditated.  Finally the killing was done with malice, which is to say it was done to do harm to another person.  The only part of the definition that does not apply is the unlawful part.  Indeed state executions are legal.  That is what protects everyone responsible for the execution from being prosecuted themselves. 

We can place the legal aspect aside because our laws change at the whims of our respective legislators.  Everything else being equal, we can surmise that state executions are indeed murder themselves.  We justify these murders however, by reasoning that the state is removing a known murderer from society.  While that is true, it does bring about the old adage that two wrongs don’t make a right now doesn’t it? 

The question of “right” comes into play.  Is state administered execution right?  That is the question that each person must ask and answer themselves.  There can be no question that the punishment fits the crime since they are the same.  But there are concessions made.  Apparently the populous is not content with the method of state executions.