2009

Bellerbys College, Brighton Student: Yaroslav Bogday Teacher: Russell Ueno-Howells

[ENGLISH SOCIETY CLAIMED

THAT DEATH PENALTY MUST BE PREVENTED. SHOULD THE EXECUTION BE REINTRODUCED IN THE UK?]

Content
Title 1. Introduction 2. Historical data (facts & statistics) 3. Reasons & Purposes for the death penalty to be banned 4. Benefits and drawbacks of law 5. Present position 6. Conclusion Page 3 4 5 7 9 10

Introduction
Currently, a dilemma about capital punishment becomes more and more popular in the United Kingdom, this question is a touchy subject for a majority of UKs people. Some argue that the death penalty should be reintroduced due to personal cases or some different factors which I will explain later, however others believe that the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act that was accepted in 1965 was the most reasonable implication. Also there are a number of other institutions who have similar thoughts. These are government, society and media. Initially, for clear understanding of my topic, I would like to explain the correct meaning of a death penalty. So, basically the death penalty or in another words capital punishment is the legally accepted killing of a person by some ugly methods such as lethal injection or electric chair. Interestingly, since ancient times it has been used for a wide variety of offences, even including kidnapping and the odd one witchcraft as regards to Bible. However, nowadays, not every crime is acceptable for a high measure punishment excluding serial murders. [Stephen's Study Room, 10. 05. 2009]. As for government, according to Tony Blair who is no doubt disagreed with the capital punishment, voiced the opinion that: We are against the death penalty for any one [Guardian, 2006]. According to Amnesty International, from the total number of worlds countries which stood at 195, currently 137 countries have abolished the death penalty [Infoplease, May 10, 2009]. With respect to purpose of my essay, my key aims are to determine whether the execution is needed to Britain or not, including all the viewpoints. I will try to find an answer to such questions as Was the banning of death row helpful? and Should death penalty be reintroduced? My work has included most relevant information such as opinions, facts and statistics from world web and in addition library archives.

Historical data
Execution - popular and very effective way to punish people, but unfortunately, unbelievably violence, as I mentioned above has been used from immemorial times. Actually, as regards to history of Britain, the most disseminating form of punishment was hanging that generally means the murdering of a person by suspending the body by the neck from a noose, sounds awful isnt it? However, that has been practiced since Anglo-Saxon times, and was prevented only in 1965. Moreover it seemed like an attraction for British citizens and took place in a public squares where inhabitants came to see such a show even with little children, but these sequences were completely abolished in 1969 [Capital punishment UK survey, 11.05.09]. On the 9th of November 1965, the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act was firstly introduced, from that date an extra 4 years were needed for a low to become fully confirmed. On the 16th of December 1969, the House of Commons reaffirmed its decision that capital punishment for murder should be permanently abolished. On a free vote, the House won by 343 votes to just 185 opposite, that the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 should not expire. Thus, the death penalty for murder was formally abolished. [Capital punishment UK survey, 06.05.09]

Reasons & Purposes for the death penalty to be banned

In this part, I would like to identify and then analyze different viewpoints in the past, including government and public opinions respectively. As it known, everyone thinks and behaves in different ways, however there are people who unofficially co-operates in a groups with similar thoughts. Thus, in every debate some people for and others against a particular question, with respect to my topic it is the reason for abolishing the execution. Initially, as regards to Office of Public Sector Information which is a government institution, the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act involves the annulling of capital punishment for murders in Great Britain, but that replaces with a life imprisonment. [OPSI, 10.05.09] This Act was accepted because of a number of ethical, politics and moral reasons such as:

No one should suffer death for the murder. That is not ethically accepted by whether public or especially church. Only god can judge us.

In Case that a murderer was blamed unfair, there is no possible way of compensating them for this mistake of justice.

Doubtful a hypothesis, but fair enough, is that family and friends may be seriously psychologically affected by the fact that their loved was guilty in murdering or worst by watching the process of execution, this such a trauma can lasted for a long period afterwards. [Capital punishment UK survey, 11.05.09].

Also, by sentencing murderer to the death row, we basically destroy his two primary human rights, according to Articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

The right to live The right not to be tortured or subject to any cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment
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However, here is a confusing point, quite often people are mixing up two different situations, one is the term known as killing and another one is murdering. Do not become embarrassed at the moment, what I am trying to say is that murdering is an act when the killing of a person happens premeditated. Whereas, there is a case when the killing of a person happens accidentally or in other words, the killer was not in favour to do that [Wikipedia, 11.05.09]. Secondly, not less important public opinion, the people who were against the capital punishment claimed that any type of execution is immoral and has to be banned. Obviously, they achieved their aim. According to Debate wise forum, some said that capital punishment is useless in case of removing any problems caused by murders from society. One other major issue is an overcrowded prisons, however as regards to American research survey, execution is much more expensive then life imprisonment [Debatewise, 11.05.09]. And lastly, as for media based on BBS web publishing, there was a strong opinion that the sentencing to the death row is an infamous act. Actually, that statement was addressed to the circumstance of punishing Ruth Ellis in 1955 who was the last women to be hanged [BBS, 16.05.09].

Benefits and drawbacks of law

As it known, introducing of any new laws will subsequently lead to either benefits or drawbacks for the economy of the country. To identify whether in my case Murder Act was helpful or not, I represented a graph which is illustrated below. It can be seen that right after Act was passed, there was a constant expansion in the amount of murders in both England and Wales, throughout the period between 1957 and 1968 the level of extension was slightly speeded up. Moreover the table provides us with information which was distinguished into three groups that are capital, non capital and in addition full numbered murders statistics. Unfortunately, the rate of acceleration carried on and by 2004 approached the number of 900 [Capital punishment U.K. 17.05.09].

Just to summarize, from the evidence presented above, it can be asserted that the execution banning brought nothing useful except church and ethics satisfaction. However, there is some other much important question such as An attempt to down size the Level of Murders. Unfortunately this particular try is failed. But, there is also a big deal with Economic issues, it was concluded that life imprisonment costs 700 per week for an usual prisoner, if even count the cumulative cost during only 20 years
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imprisonment the sum will be amazingly high, videlicet 672 000, thus the complete life imprisonments will be much more expensive [Capital punishment U.K. 16.05.09]. Whereas, comparing that figures with the death row cost, you will be surprised, the amount of spending is as twice as higher than that of life imprisonment, and exactly stood at 1.2 million. Also the cost for execution may fluctuating, due to annual cost expansion from 500 000 to 2 million, depending on a particular year [Alta Vista, 17.05.09].

Present position
The disappointing position is existed now, the worldwide facts says that just under 95% of all officially registered capital punishments took place in China, Iraq and America respectively. The figures stays at approximately 1600 killers were sentenced to the death row only in 2006. However, real number was definitely higher [Abolisionuk.arg, 15.05.09]. In an article entitled Death penalty please! by DooYoo forum, there was a strong belief in introducing of the capital punishment, lots of site visitors asserted that the execution must be reintroduced in case of personal revenge. One lady said: That it will be too generous to kill such a murders by simple lethal injection or electric chair, but they must be beaten to death or even worst to be stoned [DooYoo Forum, 13.05.09]. Moreover, as regards to Sun newspaper, 99 per sent of their readers support the idea of bringing back the death penalty, it has been announced that the people who convicted for murder also must be killed [The Sun justice, 09.05.09]. In addition, there is an argue about Costs, but as I said before according to Americans death penalty survey and Alta vista forum, execution costs much more than life imprisonment [Debatewise, 11.05.09].

Conclusion
As a conclusion I think it is fare to say that whether the Capital punishment is righteous or not, was in the past and still remains an opened and multi-sided subject for debates in our society. According to the historical backup and recent surveys, there are a valuable number of reasons of why it was a right decision to discontinue punishing people through killing; although arguments for the capital punishment are happen to be not less strong. So, which is the right side to take? It is a hard dilemma for many people. Here is a strong and memorable quote by Roy Hattersley, which helped me to make a decision: By killing murderers we become like the murderers themselves it concluded the arguments against death penalty and debates on the theme, held in House of Commons on 13th July, 1983.