Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

The Death Penalty

 

            The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, has been a hot topic in the last ten years or so. Is it moral? Is it immoral? What are causes for putting the death penalty on someone? These questions have been throughout the news since I can remember. My earliest recollection of hearing these things are from the Oklahoma City bombing. I think I was not even ten years old and I was hearing about whether or not this man should be killed. Ever since that time I have been trying to figure out if I think he should have died for the crime he committed. I am still unsure of how I stand on the issue of the death penalty. .
             There are verses in the Bible that can support both sides of the argument. For example, in the Old Testament the death penalty is okay for these crimes: murder, striking parents, kidnapping, cursing parents, ox gores for a second time, relations with a beast, sacrifice to foreign gods, bride lacking virginity, adultery, rape of a betrothed women, sacrificing children, consulting mediums, incest, other impure relations, and so on. Now for some of those reasons, like murder, the death penalty seems acceptable. But for others I am pretty sure I would be put up for the death penalty. More than half of our society would be gone if we stuck to there Old Testament laws. On the other hand, in the New Testament Jesus speaks of non-violence. He says turn your other cheek when one strikes you. This does not support the death penalty in any way. So looking to the Bible, the book I am supposed to be able to find my answers in, contradicts itself. .
             Looking at real life cases, or movies, makes it somewhat hard to figure out what my views on capital punishment are. In the movie Dead Man Walking it was obvious that Matthew Poncelet committed the murder of the boy yet I still was not certain that I would want him to die. I know he killed a defenseless kid, but does that mean he himself should also die? In some aspects I think he should.


Essays Related to The Death Penalty