Many
countries around the world keep using the death penalty for criminals who
committed such serious crimes as murder, treason, drug trafficking, pedophilia
and so forth; and the U.S. is one of these countries. At the same time, whether
the government should employ execution has generated a heated argument among different
Americans. In the following essay I will
try to summarize two articles, one of which was written by an advocate of
capital punishment and another one was written by opponent of the penalty in
question.
In
the satirical reading passage named: “The Penalty of Death,” the author H. L.
Mencken, a proponent of the penalty of death, blames some other advocates of
the aforesaid type of penalization of hypocrisy, saying that such people declare
that they maintain the capital punishment because of its deterrent effect,
whereas they actually support Katharsis, a variation of revenge.
According
to the writer, “Katharsis, so used, means a salubrious discharge of emotions,
a healthy letting off steam.” Mencken
asserts that people aspire to Katharsis, because of general human nature to
want to feel relieve knowing that the individual who has wronged them suffers
just as he has made them suffer, and it is the only way that yields victims and
their relatives the facilitation. In addition, the author in hand mentions the deterrence
of potential criminals as another reason to argue for the foregoing punishment.
He contends that this supporting argument for the execution is significant but
does not fully illustrate the real purposes of some advocates. At the same
time, the writer maintains that the penalty of death cannot be applied for such
regular crimes as accidental kills. He agrees with the legal act in hand only
for planned murders. In the last part of the topic Mencken recommends that
current American juridical practice which postpones the execution for long time
should be changed.
On
the other hand, in the prose titled: “The Death Penalty IS a Step Back,” the
author C. S. King argues against the capital punishment because of the
following several reasons. According to the writer, the foregoing penalty that legalizes
murder in our society is “immoral and unconstitutional”, and because it is actually
a wicked act, it is not a correct way of justice. The aforesaid writer asserts that the
possibility of the miscarriage of justice is irreversible in the case of the
use of the capital punishment, and this terrible mistake has happened over and
over again. In addition, King believes that any one is eligible for
rehabilitation. Moreover, the aforementioned author claims that this type of
penalization is race-discriminatory because of the statistical data which shows
that there is more chance to be executed for black Americans than for white
Americans who have committed the same types of serious crimes. Furthermore, King
contends that the advocates of the punishment in hand do not have the strong evidence
to support the prevented effect of the death penalty. In addition, the author
maintains that the majority of murders are committed accidentally as a result
of the “heat of passion”. In the end, King
suggests to fight with the acts of violence by the promotion of nonaggression
through our legal acts and institutions.
http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/menckenpendeath.htm
http://www.deltacollege.edu/emp/pwall/documents/DeathPenaltyisaStepBack.pdf
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