Would You Bring It Back?

Today I want to share my view on a topic that is highly controversial. Probably I would not come up with the idea of writing a post about it, but since Hive account@galenkp listed it as a topic in his Weekend Engagement post, I thought I'd give it a try.

The topic I want to talk about today is if capital punishment is legit or not. Before I go into details, here's what capital punishment means in Europe, for those who are not familiar with how things stand these days.

Capital punishment has been completely abolished in all European countries except for Belarus and Russia, the latter of which has a moratorium and has not conducted an execution since September 1996. The complete ban on capital punishment is enshrined in both the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (EU) and two widely adopted protocols of the European Convention on Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and is thus considered a central value. Of all modern European countries, San Marino, Portugal, and the Netherlands were the first to abolish capital punishment, whereas only Belarus still practises capital punishment in some form or another. In 2012, Latvia became the last EU member state to abolish capital punishment in wartime. source

In my country, the last execution took place in 1989, when the ex dictator and his wife were put against the wall and executed. The law regarding capital punishment was abolished at the beginning of 1990, right after the regime change.

The maximum punishment you can get right now is life. That means you will be locked up till the end of your life, but there's a possibility to be released after serving 20 years, if you have a good behavior and meet certain conditions.

Now, to answer the question, do I want death penalty back? In some cases, yes, I do, it would be recommended as there are people who don't deserve a second, third, fourth and tenth chance, yet they still get it and become repeated offenders.

I don't blame those countries that still have the death penalty for serious offenses. Sometimes I see in the news that in the United States some people are given multiple life sentences. We all know we only have one life to live, so one can only serve one life sentence.

Why Give Multiple Life Sentences?

As you can see, certain life sentences don't always result in actual life imprisonment. But even where the sentence is life without the possibility of parole, consecutive (back-to-back) life sentences may serve a practical purpose. Most often, multiple life sentences arise in murder cases involving multiple victims.

To take a situation involving the possibility of parole, suppose that a defendant is on trial for two murders. The jury convicts him of both, and the judge sentences him to consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole. State law allows the defendant to apply for parole after 20 years. By sentencing the defendant to consecutive life sentences, the judge has likely ensured that he will be behind bars for at least 40 years.

Now let's say the defendant received consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Here, the defendant appeals the convictions and a court overturns one because the prosecution didn't comply with its discovery obligations. That takes one life sentence off the books—at least until the defendant can be retried. But the other life sentence remains in effect. source

Things are not as simple as one may think and each case is unique, so there's no pattern on how things are done.

It would be ideal if people would respect private or any property and each other as well, but no matter what you do, some people are just bad. Some people never learn, never change as they don't want to.

Back in the day when the justice system was nothing like it is now, you could hang based on some so called witness statements. Inflicting fear into people was the main purpose of public executions. Those times are long gone, every citizen is aware of what is allowed and what not (not being aware does not absolve you of responsibility), so people should act accordingly, but as I said earlier, some people are just bad.

I think some offenses deserve the death penalty and I also think any convicted person should have the option to euthanasia, in case they think they don't want to live the life they have to and if they see no hope to be released. But for that to happen, you need proper legislation and a fair justice system, without abuse.

And if we're at the topic, I also think some countries should ease up on their capital punishment legislation, regarding things that they consider offense, things that are legal in other countries.

One would expect countries to evolve in the right direction but the truth is, sometimes tings can go backwards as well. Instead of marching towards more freedom, restrictions are brought back. The US is restricting the right to abortion, so who knows what's next. It's possible capital punishment will be more common. Europe is a different discussion as EU member countries have to respect union laws as well, so I suppose Belarus and Russia are the only two countries doing what they want.

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