Our world is home to a great number of notorious criminals who have committed heinous acts and undoubtedly should be punished for their actions. But we must consider the forms of punishment for criminals to face including: imprisonment, probation, restitution and the infamous death penalty, which is the one I will be speaking to you about today.

A man’s life rests in the decision of a judge or jury bound to the single word “guilty” can potentially mean the end of one man’s life.

In making such a decision a judge follows four prime factors in determining what the appropriate punishment for the offender should be. These factors are: the amount of loss to the victims, whether a weapon was used to commit the crime, the helplessness of the victims and any prior offences before the crime. If these factors are found to be serious enough, execution could be a consequence, which I strongly am against. Capital Punishment should not still exist in any countries around the world, despite seemingly having up-sides for society including the safety and vengeance factor.

Media debates such as Bali 9 members being executed soon often arise because of the speculation that happens over the issues with capital punishment. As you all are aware from recent news reports that two Bali 9 members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran’s lives are at the final stages of their lives. As their final appeals have been unsuccessful to the Indonesian government, there are plans for an execution to be carried out later this month, by firing squad. Unfortunately, the country they wanted to export the 8.3 kilograms of Heroin from was Indonesia. Indonesia is one of 25 countries in the world that choose to use capital punishment as a method of sentencing.

Countless factors can be argued whether or not capital punishment should still exist. However, the key points that I believe we should stay focused on are the deterrence, morality, economic and the social factors that are faced with capital punishment. These factors can be seen differently by every individual and views may not be the same. However, today I am here to explain why the death penalty should be abolished worldwide.

Firstly, I’d like to discuss about the deterrence factor. We generally tend to think, if capital punishment exists, it will surely deter future acts? No, this is not the case. American Civil Liberties Union states that there is no credible evidence that the death penalty actually deters crime any more effectively than long terms of imprisonment. So I ask why bother ending someone’s life when it hasn’t even been proven that it will deter future crimes from happening. ACLU studies have also shown that the majority of criminals do not consider the consequences of their actions when committing the crime. This means harsh punishments such as the death penalty will not stop them. Crimes have been found to be driven usually by social and economic factors. Ever since Canada’s decision in 1976 to remove capital punishment, it has been reported that the murder rates have dropped a staggering 44%. This is yet another, statistical analysis that proves capital punishment in actual fact does not stop future acts.

Secondly, morality is another factor that people consider when discussing the death penalty. For example, a man is charged with first degree murder. What makes it right that the law can execute this man? Is this not the same thing? Sure, the death penalty provides retribution to the victims’ family and friends but it still doesn’t change anything, their beloved family member is still gone and executing the accused will not change anything to bring them back.

Thirdly, most people believe that capital punishment is a much more cost efficient method in contrast to sending someone away to prison for their life sentence. However, from the date they are given the death penalty ruling in court their execution date may be as far as 20 years away. A graph from the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that, the number of months before an execution is being carried, is increasing. In 1985, it took on average 71 months for an execution to carry out, seemingly low right? Well, in more recent times, in 2011 it shows on average cases took 198 months before eventually proceeding. That’s an average of nearly 17 years, almost tripling the amount of months in comparison to the average of 6 years waiting time back in 1975. Is it really worth the wait of a 17 year wait period, before the actual execution to carry out? Many people do not even consider the amount of legal costs from the countless number of hearings, trials, pleas and appeals. Justice for All estimates that roughly each death penalty case can roughly cost through legal proceedings roughly about $1.2 million to $3.6 million before the actual execution carries out.

Finally, the last factor that I’ll discuss is the social issues that capital punishment faces and how it coincides with the length to carry out an execution. Everyone believes human life is valuable and every step must be taken to save their life. Because of this, cases in modern day take so long to proceed. To date the United States has had a total of 142 known cases where wrongfully accused people have been sentenced to death and killed. Later evidence from DNA showing they were not guilty. This sole reason is enough to hold a case for a long period of before execution in today’s society. Furthermore, the longer the case lasts for the more expenses accumulate.

To summarize, capital punishment should not exist anymore in countries because it raises many issues which take time to solve and statistics are yet to prove an actual deterrence in a crime.