Capital Punishment: Will the Canadian Society Agree with it? essay

Running head: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT









Capital Punishment: Will the Canadian Society Agree with it?
Justin Ryan
English 2201: March 2007
St Gabriel’s All Grade School










Capital Punishment: Will The Canadian Society Agree with it?
Capital punishment is a hot topic that always stirs up some controversy no matter where you are, and who you are. Everybody has an opinion on this topic either good or bad. Capital punishment is legal in many places but is also not legal in many places such as Canada. People give there opinions on this subject feeling like they are right and anyone that thinks otherwise is wrong, but these people may not be informed about the capital punishment or the death penalty, They may not know the facts, the history, the good or the bad of the death penalty. This is why I will explain to you all of these things and also why it works where it does and why we should have it here in Canada.
History
Capital punishment isn’t a new thing in the world, in fact it goes back more than a thousand years ago and has had more then its fair share of controversial moments that made it what it is today. The first time that the death penalty was heard of was way back in the year 700 and the first killing occurred in a small little town. That was the start of a movement, since that day there have been hundreds of thousands of people who have lost there life to the death penalty. The worst thing about the death penalty when it was first introduced was the horrible ways that people were killed. Some of these included people being thrown into a snake pit or having an elephant sitting on people and killing them. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment, February 20th 2007) For those of you who agree with the death penalty you may have to thank Dr. Guillotine as he may have saved the existence of the death penalty. Dr. Guillotine was the man who came up with the idea of having less painful and more humane ways of executing these people such as guillotine, Hanging, and gas chamber. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment, February 20th 2007) If he had not come up with these ideas then the death penalty could have been just a distant memory for many of us, and for some countries it is a distant memory like Canada but there are still countries that have the death penalty in place.
Where the death penalty takes its victims
There are 68 countries around the world that still have the death penalty in effect and these countries include United States, most of Asia, and some parts of Africa. There are 122 countries that have banned it completely including Canada Australia, Sweden, and Finland. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment, February 20th 2007) As for the countries that do have the death penalty in effect no one tops china as performed more than 3400 executions in 2004 which were more then 90% of executions worldwide, mainly because they are killed right away because of firing squad instead of waiting on death row for years and years. Other countries that kill a lot of people include the United States as they executed 60 people in 2005. The highest execution rate however belongs to Singapore as they executed 70 people in a population of about 4 million. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment, February 20th 2007) Now that you know all the people that suffer the death penalty you might want to know how they die.
Methods of Execution
The methods of execution have changed so much since the days of the snake pit and elephant sitting and you. Now the most common method is lethal injection. There are other ways that are still used just less and they are hanging, and guillotine. They seem a little more inhumane but they can be requested at the wish of the person who is receiving this faith. There were many other painful ways in the past such as burning, suffocating, poisoning, starving, and the snake pit. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States, February 20th 2007) There are many things that someone could have done to deserve this.
Crimes subject to the death penalty
There have been many crimes in the past that have been punished by the death penalty. The most common ones today however are rape, criminal assault, sexual assault, arson, and the most common which is obviously murder. In the past people have been killed for such simple things as witchcraft, burglary; horse stealing, and concealing the birth of a baby. As for the common ones today the most punishable one is murder as there have been over 1000 people executed because of murder charges. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States, February 20th 2007) The death penalty is a complex and controversial issue that creates much debate.
Arguments for the death penalty
When you are arguing for the death penalty most of it is opinionated and they just say what they think is right but believe it or not there are also facts that can back up these opinions. In areas that have the death penalty the crime rate is done by an average of 18% compared to the areas that don’t have the death penalty. Also there are many stories that tell of people that would have gotten out of jail who would have received a death penalty in countries that has it but instead got only 10 years or less. These stories tell of these people getting out and killing other people when they themselves should have been dead but instead now innocent people have to suffer because of this.
Conclusion