Essay, death penalty

Death penalty, yes or no?

Criminality is mentioned in the papers every day, which is for instance about people who were lynched in Amsterdam or about women who were found dead under suspicious circumstances. Are we convicting the committers of these crimes well, by locking them up for hopefully the rest of their lives, or aren’t we strict enough and should we take more serious measures, like the death penalty? In the USA, this is very usual, so why shouldn’t we reinstate the death penalty here as well?

Firstly we should reinstate the death penalty, because it scares off potential offenders. Namely if they know it can cost them their lives, they will think one more time before they decide to commit a serious crime. As a result of this people feel that they are safer in our society. Besides the criminal figures will fall, which is good for the reputation of our country. After all if less offenders are trying to assassinate people or planning terroristic attacks, than less crimes are committed.  

Secondly it is an excellent idea, for the reason that some criminals committed such a terrible crime, that only the death penalty is a good punishment. I mean the (serial) murderers, human traffickers, terrorists and some participators in organised crime, of whom everyone wants to be released of. Indeed, perhaps it is not good to fight fire with fire, but then you have forgotten the victims of these crimes. They will never find peace and safety until the offender died, because even with the life sentence there is no insurance. They still can receive treats of the prisoners and their acquaintances, in addition the offender can fight his convicting by starting a new trial or he can even escape, so the death penalty is the only way to handle with these criminals.

However there are also reasons why we shouldn’t reinstate it, for example the mistakes related to the death penalty itself and the process of convicting, which both frequently happen in the United States. It is inhuman to let the offender suffer during an attempt of execution. As a consequence the offender has physical damage, the pain during the penalty and mental damage, the fear for the next attempt and shocked of the first one. Moreover failures can be made during the trial, whereby an innocent man can be convicted. It is very sad if they found out the truth years later and that the offender already died, because of the death penalty.

Considering above arguments I came to a conclusion. I believe that it is a good idea to reinstate the death penalty in the Netherlands, because it scares off potential offenders and it is sometimes the only way to handle them. Although if we reinstate it, the execution must guaranteed work and there must be lots of (strong) evidence against the offender, otherwise I don’t agree with it.