Capital punishment has not been abolished so far but law has growingly become liberal in this respect. Is this a move in the right direction?

Introduction:

Capital punishment is a legal procedure for giving punishment for individual for crime. It is the policy of giving a person, a death penalty by state. This “Capital Punishment”, word has been originated from the Latin word “Capitalis”.[1] For the crimes this punishment has issued those are known as “Capital Crime”. In current time total 58 countries including Bangladesh are using this punishment policy actively. 97 countries has abolished this, others do not use this or use in special cause in last 10 years.[2]

At the same time, in different countries specially in the democratic countries, different laws for punishment is becoming more and liberal day by day. Specially, day by day when people are becoming about more human rights issues and also rise of many volunteer organizations which are dealing with the human right matters, Governments of different countries are forced to make the punishments more liberal.

Now, in this circumstance where the capital punishment is not abolished and also the law is becoming more and more liberal, then there the situation is going in two different sides.  For the real progress in legal situation of country it should not be the ideal situation. It’s a confusion situation where the chaos increases in high numbers.

In this report I will try to find out, is this type of situation is in the right path and it is effecting the complete scenario of countries legal system.

Capital Punishment:

 Capital punishment is the oldest punishment policy of world. In most of the countries it was using rapidly specially for the war criminals. Capital punishment is the other name of death sentence, death penalty which has a legal cover while it was procedure by state. This punishment is only can be issued by the Government after a proper trial. For the crime this penalty for life has given is known as “Capital Crime”. This capital crime varies from country to country. In some countries rape, killing innocent is considering as a good reason of capital punishment. In many countries capital punishment is given for drug related cases. In some countries death penalty has given by following Islamic rules.

In different countries capital punishment is giving in different process. In some countries it has been given by hang, in some countries by electronic shock. In old time it used to be done by the use of blade.

 In favor of Capital Punishment:

In different religious point of view this capital punishment is allowed and from some it does not. From the Islamic point of view this capital punishment is allowed, but it allowed it only as the top most reason. There are several other punishment policy should be consider at first. Also it says that forgiveness is always considerable.[3]

In the Buddhism, there is actually no unified policy for death penalty but it is totally inconsistence with the main theme of Buddhism.[4]Again there is no straight direction in Hinduism which supports this death penalty while in this religion; it does not support any violence.[5]

Now, there are many arguments behind this capital punishment. First, it is considering as the punishment. All guilty people have to be punished. It is the very basic argument behind this punishment. In most of the cases this punishment is given to the people who are murdered others.

Another major argument behind this punishment is, this punishment does not bring the guilty person back to the society. People argue that to keep the society perfect it is very much necessary. This does not allowed those guilty people to do that crime again.

Another very important Japanese argument is there behind this capital punishment, according to BBC web portal it is, “A unique justification for keeping capital punishment has been put forward by some Japanese psychologists who argue that it has an important psychological part to play in the life of the Japanese, who live under severe stress and pressure in the workplace.”[6]

Moreover, in summary these are the prime reasons why this capital punishment is using in many countries.

Movement against the Capital Punishment to abolish:

This death penalty treatment is becoming under threat in many countries after the movements has been started against it in many countries. The major claim against this capital punishment is the wrong execution. In many countries many people are becoming the victim of this punishment. [7][8] With the help of modern technology it is found that almost 15 people was the victim of this judgment but only a friction of people get this facility.[9]

Also there is another growing debate was growing up, that, is a mentally disabled person punished by capital punishment if they do same crime. In 1912 a woman was faced this capital punishment although her IQ was below 70.[10][11]

At the same time public opinion starts to rise. In Australia, Canada, and Latin America and also in other places this capital punishment becomes a controversial issue.[12] Though most of the people are supporting this death penalty but still the people are standing against it and it is a very increasing stage.  Though these things are having impact in abolishing this death penalty but still 60% of world population lives in those countries where this punishment is taking place and the impact is, each of the 4 nations raised vote against the capital punishment in general assembly.[13][14][15]

Current countries are using of Capital Punishment:

Though in past, this type of punishment was using all the parts of world, but after the time passes this death punishment culture has been slowed down. In most of the countries abolished this punishment for various reason again, it is using in many countries also. Major countries which are using this capital punishment these are, in China almost 4000 people had death penalty around 2011 and 2012.[16] In the same time in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and United States respectively more then 360, 82, 68, 43 people are punished by capital punishment. In Singapore and in Afghanistan around respectively 4 and 2 people has been punished by death penalty. This punishment policy is also applicable in Bangladesh, in 2011-2012 period, more than 5 people are punished by this policy.[17]

United States, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan are the only developed countries which are not abolished this capital punishment. During the time of 1980, the Latin American countries started to abolish Capital punishment. After that this process was also spreading to Center Europe and then this step was also taken by EU, though people of that area had mix reaction about this step.[18]

In total 58 countries including Bangladesh is using Capital punishment actively. 97 countries has abolished this, others do not use this or use in special cause in last 10 years. From the general assembly of UN it has been seen that from the year 2007 to 2010 the rate of abolishing the capital punishment has increased. Amnesty international is considering one of leading organization which is working on human rights has claimed that most of countries have abolished the death penalty.

There are also many countries are resuming this punishment after a period. Currently Mongolia is working on abolishing this capital punishment.[19]

 Liberal Laws and International Organizations:

Now, in current days as people are becoming more aware about their rights, Governments of different countries are pushed highly to make their laws more liberal than past. Especially as different international organizations are raising their voice against different laws which are having a high bad impact on human rights, so Government are forcing to do that. Such like some countries are getting universal ban for these issues.[20]

These things are becoming more focused when international human rights have been made and start to work on. From then the human right issues are more observed and monitored by different organizations as that helped different Governments to make the law more liberal.

How the law becomes more liberal: In current time as the government forced to bring more facility to the jail. In many countries police are becoming abandoned to arrest someone at any time.

In many countries now, there are different types of law there for mental patient and children. For them there are different types of Place has made also. For the cause of human rights the time limit of punishment is decreasing. Also, the suspicious person is getting more legal facility than past time. These facilities are creating many whole of weakness of law. Criminals are using those on their favor.

Also, from the ethical concern in many organizations it has been stopped from being monitor the employees, which increased the chance of different accident.

Of course, these human right issues are making the legal procedure more and more liberal than the past time though it is important to execute to make the people’s life easy.

 Is it the right moves that not to abolished capital punishment but making the law liberal or not:

This is a move where two different things are going in two different directions. It is totally making the main theme more unclear to the people. These things normally happens when the current situation of country is not good, again it also can be take place if the political situation is not good or when the country is running under a military government. Also, it also can take place from the strategic point of view of the government. Again in some countries it is also practicing as the traditional manner. For example, the name of Japan can be mentioned. Though there are many reasons behind this, but the political instability is the main reason.

Impacts of this wrong move:

It has a big impact on the thinking procedure of general people. One of the major problems it is making that it creates an unclear situation. As the country does not abolished the capital punishment and also making the law liberal that gives a total different idea to the people that how much the government is taking care of human rights. It gives totally a wrong message to the mass of the country.

As it failed to create a clear situation to do something so it creates a chaos situation, also in the legal authority departments. Judiciary authority may need to change their ideas and needs to bring a new idea to explain such kind of situation and it increases the complexity in whole process.

Also, it creates many whole for the real criminals which they will use to take legal protection, whereas it also makes the situation unhealthy for the general people. This kind of situation may mislead the law and authority which may pushed them capture a wrong person. There are several examples are behind us that says that a single this type of mistake is creating a complete chaos situation for the country.

Now, another big problem arises while this wrong move has taken by government that it gives misleading information to the international bodies. Not only has that it also given an unclear idea to the internal organizations which are working on human rights. In this kind of situation the government falls in some kind of trap condition which directly or indirectly effects in the whole process of managing the country. It effects on the economy of the county. Most importantly it creates a negative impression over the country. This throws the country backward than where it is.

Situation in Bangladesh: It has mentioned already that not been abolishing capital movement and at the same time making the law liberal is making the situation unhealthy and Bangladesh is a prime example of that. Bangladesh is one of top rated country where this capital punishment is using. We have already been seen that, there are some wrong decision has been taken on this matter. Government is using thisas weapon some cases, which gives a total wrong idea to the general people about how much the government is taking care about the human rights. In some cases the president of the country needs to take steps to forgive the some victim of this capital punishment. It is also creating chaos in the normal judiciary activities. As it is totally a wrong path government and Bangladesh as a country, suffering from this problem very much.

Solving this problem:

To solve this problem there are several steps the government has must need to take care of. At first government has to consider the International Human Rights condition, that will give them a primary lead that how they will solve this problem. Then need to find out the weakness of the constitution, which is forcing them to this kind of situation. Then they have to publish that to the people of the country, and after all that they will pass it as bill as state has abolished this capital punishment. A country should need to abolish death penalty to build to take care about the human rights condition of the country.

 Opinion:

 Though Capital punishment is a age old practice which used a lot to maintain the legal situation of the country, but as time passes and people are being more aware then the past world so the necessity of this kind of punishment has been decreased moreover it is not necessary at all. Also, it totally creates a foggy situation to the normal people and also it is misleading the normal people so obliviously “capital punishment has not been abolished so far but law has growingly become liberal in this respect” is totally a wrong move for any country. It does not help to make the situation perfect but it increase the chaos in a huge percentage.

 Conclusion:

 In this whole report I have discussed about the different aspects of “Capital Punishment”, religious base of death penalty, world view of this punishment and again how it affecting the normal activities of the country does. From this report, it also be found that how the general people are raising their voice against this punishment. Not only is this different strong organization growing up against this movement. These things are pressurize the government to move themselves from capital punishment. All of this kind of thing gives a clear picture that it really does not a right path for the people or for the state. It is destructible for any state. I have also mentioned that how this problem can be solved. Moreover without disabling this whole capital punishment function nothing will work perfectly. To make all the things clear I have also given my opinion, to make my state clear that, “capital punishment has not been abolished so far but law has growingly become liberal in this respect” is not a right movement.

Reference:

Amnesty International (n.d Abolitionist and retentionist countries retrieved fromhttp://www.amnesty.org/en/death-penalty/abolitionist-and-retentionist-countries

AFP, (2010, May30). Death penalty information center. “International Polls and Studies”

Amnesty International (2011, January 5) “Mongolia takes ‘vital step forward’ inabolishing the death penalty”, retrived from http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/mongolia-takes-vital-step-forward-abolishing-death-penalty-2012-01-05

 Amnestry international (n.d.) Death sentenece and execution, 2011, retrieved from http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ACT50/001/2012/en/241a8301-05b4-41c0-bfd9-2fe72899cda4/act500012012en.pdf

 BBC Web portal (n.d.) Islam and capital punishmentretrived from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/capitalpunishment.shtml

BBC Web portal (n.d.) Buddhism and capital punishmentretrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/buddhistethics/capitalpunishment.shtml

BBC Web portal (n.d.) Hinduism and Capital Punishment retrived from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/hinduethics/capitalpunishment.shtml

 BBC Web portal (n.d.) A Japanese Argument retrived from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/for_1.shtml#section_7

Bist, R. (2004, August 23) India: Death penalty debate won’t die out soon retrieved from: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FH13Df03.html

DPIC .(n.d.).  International Polls and Studie, retrieved from

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/international-polls-and-studies

 Dui HUa Foundation. (2012, June). “Dui Hua Estimates 4,000 Execution in China, Welcomes Open Dialouge”

 Huber, T. (29 June 2007). “Journeecontre la peine de mort: le monde decide!” (in French). Coalition Mondiale Retrived from: http://www.worldcoalition.org/?storyid=10

 Kreuter, W. (2010,  August 23) “Execution Innocents”. Justicedenied.org. Retrieved from: http://www.justicedenied.org/executed.htm

 Kronenwetter, M.(2001) Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook (2ed.) ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-432-9

 Ludin, L. (2011, 10 July). “Casey Anthony Trial-Aftermath”. Capital Punishment. Orlando: Criminal Brief. “With 400 condemned on death row, Florida is an extremely aggressive death penalty state, a state that will even execute for drug trafficking.”

 Milam, G. (2011, February 23)Grandmother Teresa Lewis to be executed in Virginia after last minute reprieve refused”.  Retrieved from News.sky.com.

 Radelet, M. (2010, August 23). “wrongful execution” Retrieved from http://mitglied.multimania.de/PeterWill/penal9.htm

 Steinmetz, Katy(2010, 10 September). “Virginia woman faces execution amid calls from leniency”Time

Stateline web portal (2009, March 25 )Death penalty rift in states continues in the US

.retrieved from http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/24280