So what other reasons are there for Capital Punishment, particularly in a country that considers itself modern and civil? It is seen to be the highest punishment - the ultimate revenge. Take a life, and lose your own. This may seem a fair idea, but it is based on the old testament idea "take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" That should have been replaced by Jesus' notion of turning the other cheek. And as Ghandi rightfully pointed out "An eye for an eye, and the whole world goes blind." Where do we draw the line? Surely by taking the life of the murderer, we are committing murder ourselves, even if it is permitted by law.
There are, of course, other disadvantages to the death penalty. What if you have carried out the death sentence on the wrong person? It is irreversible, and there is nothing to be done when you discover the truth. How do you explain to their family that there was no reason for them to die?
All in all, I really don't see what the death penalty achieves. We have established it is not really a deterrent, and can only really be seen as revenge by those with an old fashioned, barbarian attitude. So what other reason? I know a lot of people will think I'm taking the soft approach here, but I think criminals should be HELPED as opposed to punished. Killing them achieves nothing, and neither, in my opinion, does locking them up with other criminals so they can get more ideas of worse crimes to commit. I am definitely not saying they should have no reprimand, but prisons should be more of a helpful environment, where the criminals can be counselled, and I feel in many cases this would stop them re-offending. Of course, there are those that are beyond help, but even so, do they really deserve to die?
A system using the death penatly is more expensive than one using life imprisonment.
It is estimated that one execution cost three times as much as life imprisonment.