Death Penalty In Canada

Are countries eligible to deprive personal right of life by social contract? Capital punishment, which is the punishment by death, has been practiced by many countries and cultures since the beginning of human history. That means capital punishment is the oldest and the most serious penalty for human beings. However, there are over two thirds of countries have abolished death penalty in law and in reality up to 2009. Canada is one of them, but some Canadians think capital punishment should be reinstated to Canada again. This essay would discus abolition of capital punishment is a good thing for Canada. Canadians should consider about some aspects before they want to reintroduce the death penalty: wrongful conviction, public opinions and economic …show more content…
However, some people also argue that abolition of capital punishment is a Running head: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 5 terrible thing for Canada. First, it is often thought that capital punishment can act as a significant intimidation to decrease the criminal rate of Canada. In fact, it is completely wrong because Canada’s criminal rate has been declined since 1976 (the year of abolition of death penalty of Canada). Besides, the intimidation is under or only exists on the assumption of the criminals’ rationality, yet most criminals are doing wrong things due to passionate impulse. And do the murderers do not know the consequences of murder? If murderers know the death penalty to crime and still keep doing that, that means the death penalty is not an effective way to deterrent them; if murderers do not know that they will be sentenced to death after committing crimes, it means that the death penalty does not achieve as the desired effect. Amnesty international (2000) has declared that there is no clear evidence to show the death penalty can reduce the criminal rate. As a result, the intimidation effect of death penalty is useless to avoid the increasing criminal rate. Additionally, some people also note that the retaliation is not a negligible moral issue on the capital punishment. It cannot be denied that revenge is the intrinsic characteristic of human, and capital punishment is a way to comfort the families of the victims. However, it does not have any substantial compensation effects to the relatives of the victims and society instead of just to satisfy the momentary pleasure. For instance, “Oshea and Mary”, when Oshea was a teenager, he shot and killed Mary’s only son, Laramiun Byrd, in a gang fight. A dozen years later, Mary went to prison to meet Oshea and found out who