Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, by a human being, with malice afore- thought. It is contrary to common law. What that means is that it is a given, it doesn’t need to be legislated , you simply do not unlawfully take the life of another human being.
There are really no absolutes in anything, there are always other ways of doing things, we may not agree , but because we cannot see an alternative way of doing things doesn’t mean there is no other way. The Death penalty is one such issue. There are strong opinions on both sides of the death penalty issue and it’s application. In many countries it has been outlawed as a form of punishment. Opponents argued successfully in those localities that it is cruel and inhumane punishment. Never mind that those to whom the death penalty is administered, are deemed murderers who never gave a thought to the cruel inhumane treatment they were meting out to their victims.
Some argue it is ineffective as a deterrent to murder and as such it should be abolished. Others argue the death penalty from religious/moral perspectives. They make the case that society should forgive. My contention about the moral/religious arguments are as follows. If we believe the Bible’s account of Jesus’ death on the cross, be reminded that two people were also executed with him. As far as the Bible’s account of that conversation between Jesus and the two men are concerned, at least one of the men agreed that he deserved the punishment meted out to him. Also be reminded Jesus in his mercy forgave that man for his sins, he was still made to pay the price for his sins.
That man was a thief not a murderer, yet he and the other paid the ultimate price for the acts they committed, with the guiltless Savior. Jesus never once rebuked the authorities for administering the death penalty to the thieves , much less himself an innocent man. The notion that Capital punishment is not a deterrent is ludicrous at best and at worst cannot be proven by those who make those claims. People who kill and are found guilty, who have exceeded all of their appeals under the law, and are put to death, are deterred. As I have said before there are no silver bullets to any problem but for that one murderer, society need not worry anymore.
Of all the things which infuriates me about those who are anti-capital punishment, nothing bothers me more than their hypocritical silence on the issues of victims rights. They pretend that the victims never existed, or show blatant and disrespectful disregard for the rights of the innocent, even as they lobby for that of the guilty.
In Jamaica Authorities have accepted the notion, that putting beastly demonic criminals who kill multiple people without compunction to death, is cruel and inhumane treatment. They have accepted what many in the Industrialized developed world doesn’t, that we should simply forgive those demons. As such a free for all exists as it regards the taking of human life, there is no fear of consequence, be it imprisonment or death. Anti death penalty lobbyists are as much at risk as those people who are willing to see the law take it’s course in a just and proper way.
Jamaicans in the know, are aware that on the streets it is to one’s credit to claim how many people he has killed, in local vernacular(how much duppy him mek). It is disgusting to hear fraudulent Elitist make anti-death penalty arguments, when they live in countries which embrace and use the death penalty as an effective tool in the fight against serious crime and terror.
Those who argue that the death penalty should not be used because of the risk of killing the innocent do so with some legitimacy. There have been cases where the innocent have been put to death due to impropriety by law enforcement officers and prosecutors who reused to pay attention to exculpatory evidence for various reasons to include race and other considerations. The emergence of DNA evidence as a crime fighting tool has freed a considerable amount of people wrongly convicted.
The conclusive nature of DNA evidence also makes the case for the application of the death penalty, even as it weeds out the innocent. Those opposed to capital punishment on the grounds that the innocent may be wrongly convicted, have no legitimate quarrel with the death penalty, their issue ought to be with unscrupulous cops and prosecutors and tardy criminal justice systems like the one which obtains in Jamaica.
You simply do not throw out the baby with the bath-water, I urge the Jamaican Authorities to get on with the business of carrying out the will of the electorate and hang the callous murderers on death row.