Capital punishment is one of the most contentious practices not only in the United States but across the world ( Steiker & Steiker, 2016) . Capital punishment promotes the notion that an individual should be put to death for the atrocities that they committed. In 2018, the United States was said to have executed 25 people and over 3,000 prisoners remain on “death row.” Besides, the country is only one in fifty-six countries in the world that still practice capital punishment ( (Yost, 2019 ) . Today, 31 states in the United States practice the death penalty, while 18 states have abolished the practice. Globally, there is a firm trend towards the eradication of capital punishment. Many countries across the world with varied cultures, religious backgrounds, traditions, and legal systems have taken positions that are in favour of elimination capital punishment ( Steiker & Steiker, 2016) . However, other countries are against the abolition of capital punishment because it is a deterrent effect, and it is consistent with public opinion (Yost, 2019 ) . This paper argues out that capital punishment is inhumane, cruel, and degrading punishment that undermines the universal human right to life and the denial of human dignity and integrity and thus, should be abolished.
Capital punishment inherently violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and the promise of due process of law and equal protection under the United States law ( Steiker & Steiker, 2016) . The federal government should not bestow upon itself the right to kill people especially with ceremony and premeditation especially in the name of the law or in the name of its people, and when it promotes the practice in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner. In 2019, 11 states in the United States impost capital punishment but only eight states had more than one case (Yost, 2019 ) . The state of Florida imposed seven death sentences more than any other state (Yost, 2019 ) . A new dynamic is evolving where states have recognized the death penalty as a denial to the universal human right to life and freedom from torture and inhumane punishment, thus agreeing to the abolishment of capital punishment.
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Capital punishment is applied to individuals in the criminal justice system unjustly and unfairly which is mainly dependent on their socio-economic status, the racial composition of the perpetrator, the skills of their attorneys and where the crime took place (Warrington, 2018) . African Americans are more likely than any other race to be executed exceptionally if the victim was white (Gupta & Krishnan, 2018). People of colour account for more than 45 percent disproportionate executions in the United States since 1976 and 60 percent of those currently awaiting execution. In addition, the death penalty has been earmarked for individuals from lower socio-economic groups (Yost, 2019 ) . Thus, capital punishment has been turned into a class-based form of inequity, making it the comparable form of arbitrary executions. Poor people are unreasonably affected by capital punishment for they are an easy target for law enforcement, they cannot afford legal counsel, tracing witnesses is costly, procuring expert evidence is out of their reach and their access to appeals depends on their ability to acquire extra counsel (Yost, 2019 ) . The disproportionate impact of capital punishment based on race and class violates international standards such as the right to a just trial and the principle of non-discrimination and therefore, should be abolished.
There are questions on the capability of the criminal justice system to defend the innocent before being issues with the death penalty. Often than not, innocent people are sentenced to death (Warrington, 2018) . Since 1973, more than 200 people have been released from the criminal justice system because of their innocence in 26 states (Riley, 2016). In 2019, five people were exonerated after spending decades in prison while four who were likely innocent were either executed or mildly escaped execution. According to a recent study, more than 5 percent of all convicts sentenced to capital punishment in the U.S. are innocent. The study also concluded that most innocent prisoners who are convicted of capital punishment in the U.S. are neither exonerated nor executed, but instead they are sentenced or resentenced for life in prison and then forgotten (Riley, 2016). The criminal justice system spends most of its efforts on prisoners when they face capital punishment. In most cases, when prisoners are exonerated from the death penalty, little or nothing is done to the unequal justice that they experienced or the probability that they will spend their entire lives in prison for a crime that they did not commit (Warrington, 2018) .
For decades, the deterrent question has been at the core of capital punishment. The argument is whether capital punishment can prevent future crimes (Riley, 2016). The perception of most states in implementing or promoting capital punishment is that it will discourage criminals from committing crimes. In studies conducted both in the United States and Canada, there is no consistent evidence that capital punishment deters crime. Many people, researchers and legislators have argued that abolishing capital punishment would lead to higher crime rates but studies in both countries to back this assumption up (Warrington, 2018) . The argument that criminals anticipate the consequences of getting caught and decide whether life imprisonment is acceptable and any reliable evidence does not back up execution. Most offenses are committed on the spur of the moment thus living little or no opportunity at all for potential punishments to influence whether the crime will be determined or not or if the perpetrators believe that they will be caught and brought to book (Riley, 2016). According to a recent survey on law enforcement professionals and police chiefs, it was found out that capital punishment does not prevent crime, and it was ranked among the lowest in dropping violent crimes (Warrington, 2018) . Instead, they classified reducing drug abuse, developing a better economy, and increasing the number of law enforcement officers better than capital punishment in reducing violent crimes.
Public opinion and law enforcement agencies justify the death penalty based on the argument that the execution of convicted criminals will deter would-be murders from killing people (Riley, 2016). Capital punishment is also advocated for on the ground on the ground of reoffending and the justification that imprisonment can prevent convicted murderers from reoffending (Warrington, 2018) . The death penalty also holds the notion that the guilty and convicted murderers deserve to be punished in equal measure based on the severity of their crimes and acts as a form of retribution to the victim’s family.
World democracies recognize the need to create laws, but such legislation must be enacted with the boundaries of human rights. A society cannot promote violence and at the same time, sacrifice human rights. The decision to support capital punishment should not be based on financial motives, racial discriminations or as a way of reducing prison populations. Legislators, politicians, and law enforcement officials to lead the way in promoting human rights by opposing capital punishment. Although public opinions claim that the American public approves capital punishment, careful analysis suggests that most American citizens desire an alternative and oppose capital punishment of convicted felons and prefer if they were sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
References
Gupta, M. H., & Krishnan, S. (2018). Can Capital Punishment Ever Be Justified: A Critical Study?
Huffmon, H. B. (2019). “An Eye for an Eye” and Capital Punishment. The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Law , 119.
Riley, M. R. T. J. (2016). The Right of the State to Inflict Capital Punishment. The Catholic Lawyer , 6 (4), 4.
Steiker, C. S., & Steiker, J. M. (2016). Abolishing the American death penalty: The court of public opinion versus the US Supreme Court. Val. UL Rev. , 51 , 579.
Warrington, M. (2018). Justice and Capital Punishment.
Yost, B. S. (2019). Against Capital Punishment . Oxford University Press.
