First, I want to give you some basic information about death penalty and afterwards I will give you my personal opinion.
The death penalty, also called capital punishment, is when a government or state executes someone, because they have committed a serious crime. Executions have become rarer in recent years but still a third of the world´s countries have laws that allow capital punishment (e.g Japan, China, Iran, United States, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, India, Singapur, Indonesia, Thailand etc.)
Common reasons for execution are:
- Bank robbery (Saudi Arabia)
- Kidnapping
- Rape (China, Saudi Arabia)
- Trafficking with human beings (China)
- Homosexuality (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Mauritania)
- Prostitution (Saudi Arabia)
- Apostasy[1] in Islam (Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Qatar, Mauritania)
- Witchcraft (Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
- Trafficking or possessing certain illegal drugs in a certain quantity
- Bribery and Corruption (China)
The death penalty is a highly disputed and controversial topic.
I think that it is ridiculous that it is still a question if the capital punishment should be abolished or not. If you ask me, it´s not ok to kill someone because of what the person did. Someone who committed a crime should be punished but there are other ways than this one. There were some things that really shocked me during my research and these were the facts that homosexuality, apostasy in Islam and witchcraft were reason for executing someone. That´s mortifying! If you ask me, death penalty is ethically not correct and should be abolished all over the world!
[1] the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle.
Salomé Tarla-Tremblay
