Capital Punishment

       Lastly, the capital punishment is a suitable punishment as it acts as a deterrence for potential criminals to commit the same crimes. It is mainly to be measured by the impression it makes on those who are still innocent, by the horror with which it surrounds the first promptings of guilt. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics in USA, the number of execution in USA has been gradually dropping since 1999. Besides USA, Singapore is also another nation that retains capital punishment. Singapore has one of the highest execution rates in the world relative to its population. However, Singapore has very low crime rates and the general state of law and order has been held up. These two examples show the deterrence effect of capital punishment. It is argued, however, that there are lower crime rates in states with no capital punishment, so there is no deterrence effect. However, statistics have shown that those same states had lower rates during the moratorium period of the late 1960s to mid 1970s when no executions occurred in the United States. Hence, it is an invalid argument as these states originally have low crime rate.

       In conclusion, capital punishment is still, by far, the most suitable punishment for those who committed serious crimes like murder, as it is fair, protects the sanctity of human rights and at the same time deter people from committing crimes. Capital punishment deters people from inflicting suffering by suffering, which is the very purpose of penal justice.