Over the last thirty years, there has been a worldwide revolution in public opinion regarding the death penalty. This according to statistics has declined considerably and with regards to the declaration of the European Union as ‘death penalty free’ in 1998 and the death penalty has been prohibited within its borders. The cost of inducing a painless death runs into millions of pounds while housing criminals in prison costs about £65000 annually (Fpe.org.uk, 2016). Capital punishment is referred to as the ‘death penalty’, it is defined as the legal authorized killing of an individual as punishment for a crime. This scope was widely employed in the constitutional structure of countries such as Britain and USA (but subsequently abolished) to address issues such as murder and treason but not limited to them. China, Bahrain, Bangladesh amongst other nations retained the use of capital punishment while countries such as The United Kingdom, Mozambique, Venezuela and a host of others, have abolished the practice all together. A big question remains whether or not the death penalty is moral in discipline. Since its founding in recent years, much debate has stirred regarding the validity under the law, the effects on our society and the morally of capital punishment. Those in support of pro-capital punishment/ death penalty argue that it is vital and necessary in today's world, stating the claim that it is in fact an effective deterrent to criminal behavior. Those that stand against the use of capital punishment often question the constitutionality of the practice and also state the case that capital punishment is not effective and severely flawed, mostly targeting low income individuals and minorities. According to Death Penalty Information (DPIC) today more than two-thirds of the world countries and mostly all of Europe have abandoned capital punishment. Also, since 1976, at least 142 inmates have been freed from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged Lack of an effective attorney, execution methods and above all executing the innocent. This essay aims at explaining capital punishment and its overall effectiveness as an instrument of justice. In order to do this, this essay will highlight and attempt to analyze the pros and cons of capital punishment with reference to the reduction in crime rate & population control, crime to punishment ratio and religious bias. It will also highlight the economic effect of capital punishment to the society at large. To achieve this, this essay will focus on China with reference to other countries such as UK and US with contrasting criminal prosecution systems.
The reduction in crime rate and population control are some of the main factors surrounding the introduction of capital punishment. According to Sunstein (2005), capital punishment ‘may be morally required not for the retributive reasons, but in order to prevent the taking of lives’. With this in mind, the introduction of capital punishment in the UK (later abolished under the Murder Act, 1965) and China are justified. Although capital punishment may be said to have a resulting effect in reducing crime rate, some criminologists believe that the death penalty is of no deterrent effect (Radelet, 2009). The capital punishment as a deterrent in China includes but is not limited to Terrorism related offenses resulting in death, rape not resulting in death, Economic crimes not relating in death, aggravated murder and murder. In 1965, the UK recognized the invalidity of capital punishment in the country’s system. Similarly, some parts of the U.S such as Illinois, Kentucky,Kansas and California also abolished capital punishment on the grounds of its promotion of deterrence in the country. According to Jimmy Carter, capital punishment was in fact an opposite of strong deterrence to murder. Alternatively, from Rubin’s (2006) view, capital punishment has a ‘deterrent effect’ of between 3 and 18 murders. This which is contrary to other popular belief shows that capital punishment goes a long way in saving lives. With a booming population of 1.3 billion people, China upheld punishment by death to control population growth. According to Dui Hua Foundation, China kills about an estimate of 5,000 prisoners annually. These statistics show that China carries out more executions than the entire world.
A Noteworthy facts from the capital punishment in China .The removal of Death-eligible economic crimes numbering about thirteen from the criminal law in 2011 which has been in favour of the elite class saw thing such as smuggling exotic animals, precious stones and tax related frauds Judicial immunity. The number of deaths from capital punishment in China remains undisclosed as it is classified a state secret and the immediate execution of convict shows that they do not linger on death row and in some cases a two year suspended sentence is offered (Anon, 2016). Although research carried out. Note
Looking at the Cons of capital punishment, the execution of innocent people remains a negative aspect of the capital punishment. Governor Ryan of Illinois banned the capital punishment in Illinois although he was previously a fervent supporter of the death penalty. The ban which was actualized after the discovery that some inmates who had been placed on death row were executed even though they were innocent (Deathpenaltyinfo.org, 2016). As in the case of China, there have been recent cases of wrongful imprisonments which have in turn spurred debates concerning the capital punishment. A case in 1995 saw the execution of an innocent 20 year old man who was accused of murder and rape but a later discovery in 2005 showed the man was innocent. Another case which was that of a 58 year old man who was sentenced to death in 2002 but by the year 2012 was vindicated (English.caixin.com, 2016).Further death sentences have revealed that such sentences are bias in relation to the socioeconomic status of the convicted individual. A case being that of a poor villager from Guizhou who was denied mental assessment and sentenced to death, while the wife of a Politburo member was granted a suspended death sentence as a result of her mental illness (English.caixin.com, 2016). This goes a long way showing the influence of socioeconomic status on the justice system of capital punishment.
Furthermore, the death penalty which has brought about a good number of international referendum and friction. This has to do with the execution of members of a certain country in a foreign land. As in the recent case of the tragic execution of two Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran by Indonesia.The discovery of hard drugs on them in Indonesia saw them face a quick verdict of the death penalty by Indonesian authorities with pleas of clemency from the Australian parliament and ministers being denied by the Indonesian president. This situation led to a further research carried out by Roy Morgan questioning whether or not a sentence of a death penalty should be carried out on convicted Australians in Foreign countries. Interestingly, the opinion poll turned out to have a 52% affirmative response. Followed up by a referendum of whether or not the execution of Myuran and Chan should proceed and an total 62% responded to the affirmative (Roy Morgan, 2016).
Methodology
This project is aimed at dissecting the capital punishment in China and few other nations.