ENGLISH ESSAY ‘Should Death
penalty be abolished’ FROM 450 TO 500 WORDS
Whether an assassin is sentenced to death or he
should be given a prison sentence for life? Will the abolition of death penalty
result in a sharp increase in the number of murder? These and similar other
questions keep agitating the minds of right-thinking persons all over the world
after England took the initiative and abolished death penalty.
Since the beginning of the organized society,
capital punishment has been there. In olden days, the prevalent idea was: an
eye and a tooth for a tooth. Such bloodthirsty punishments are no more in tune
with the present civilization. Is not the judge who awards the death sentence,
as great a murderer whom he is sending to the gallows?
Different methods are use to finish the life of a
criminal. In Italy, wartime dictator, Mussolini was killed by a firing squad.
In the olden days, the criminals were beheaded.
The head of King Charles I was cut off by a
hangman’s axes. Whatever the method is followed to put an end to the life of a
criminal, it is revolting and reminds us of the days of barbarism.
More than thirty-five countries have abolished death
penalty and the aftermath of it has done no harm to the society. Most of the
persons are of the view that punishment should either be reformative or
deterrent but death sentence is neither. It cannot reform the criminal since he
is dead and is beyond good and bad. Some people are of the view that spending
one’s whole life in prison is a more severe punishment than hanging.
Above three centuries ago, there were some two
hundred crimes for which the punishment was death. The thieves were warned
through public hanging in the olden days. But while one thief was being hanged,
other thieves were busy in pick-pocketing in the crowd collected there. Also,
there is the element of human error. There have been cases when innocent men
were sentenced to death and the real culprits were found later.
When hundred of crimes were punishable with death
penalty, people thought that if death sentence was abolished, there would no
fear and hence the crimes would increase. Today, death sentence has been
abolished foe all crime except murder yet there is not whole scale chaos and
anarchy as feared by people. Also, there is widespread misuse of death penalty
to kill one’s political rivals. At the end of World War II, Hitler committed
suicide and his great companions were hanged by the order of the War Crimes
Tribunal. Their chief crime was that they had been defeated in the war, though
the victorious side had done the same acts.
Murderers are not inborn murderers. In fact, they
are so because of the circumstances in which they are placed. The society,
education, employment opportunities and many other reasons are responsible in
turning ordinary human beings into criminals. Even criminals possess something
good as a trait in their personality. Hence death penalty is no way to reform
criminals.
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