Azel Marie D.

Ayco & Mary Joy Villacora

27, 2016

April

Phi203

No to Death Penalty

Death penalty or capital punishment is a punishment of execution and according to

Jeffrey H. Reiman in his book Contemporary Moral Problems it is like torture, it's a
"torture to death" and it is too horrible to be used by a society. Death penalty does
not prevent crime; it is not necessary to be use as prevention to crime in our
society. The state would be unable to prevent accidental execution of innocent
people and death penalty violates the 1987 constitution of the Republic of the
Philippines; Article 2 Section 11, Article 3 Section 1 and Section 19 for it demands
that a punishment must comport the basic concept of respect to human dignity and
its rights.
Death Penalty does not prevent crime. How would capital punishment prevent crime
from happening if it births to another crime which increases the probability of
murder. It shows that the prevention of the effects of capital punishment has
nothing in connection with the lower rates of crime. The ultimate justification of any
punishment is not that is preventing, but that it is emphatic accusation by the
community of the crime and from this point of view there are some murderers
which, in the present state of public opinion in other countries cases, demand the
most emphatic accusation of all, in the death penalty. According to Hugo Adam
BedauFormer Austin Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University; When crime
is planned, the criminal ordinarily concentrates on escaping detection, arrest, and
conviction. The threat of even the cruelest punishment will not discourage those
who expect to escape detection and arrest. It is impossible to imagine how the
threat of any punishment could prevent a crime that is not made according to a
plan. Most capital crimes are committed in the heat of the moment. Most capital
crimes are committed during moments of great emotional stress or under the
influence of drugs or alcohol, when logical thinking has been suspended. In such

cases, violence is inflicted by persons mindless of the consequences to themselves

as well as to others.
State is unable to prevent accidental execution of innocent people. Sentencing
someone to death is an irrevocable decision. What is wrong about murder is not
merely that it is killing as such, but killing of a legally innocent person by nonauthorized individual and this doesn't apply to executions that are outcome of
conviction at a fair trial. Those innocents are sometimes wrongly convicted and if
they receive that death penalty there is no way to correct the wrong done to them.
If someone executed and found that has been innocent, there's no way you can give
back the life that has been taken. But if someone is sentenced to life in prison and
found to have been innocent, he/she can be set free.
In the 1987 constitution of the Republic of the Philippines Article 2 Section 11 states
that The State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full
respect for human rights". Article 3 Section 1 states that No person shall be
deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person
be denied the equal protection of the law". Article 3 section 19 which states that
"Excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor cruel, degrading or inhuman punishment
inflicted. Neither shall death penalty be imposed, unless for the compelling reasons
involving genius crimes, the congress hereafter provides for it. Any death penalty
shall be reduced to reclusion perpetua". The death penalty is a cruel and unusual
punishment that violates these articles.
A penalty must accord with the dignity of man which is the basic concept under
these articles. Death penalty is unconstitutional because it's excessive. An
excessive penalty is invalid under the Article 3 Section 19. These articles demands
more than that a challenged punishment be acceptable to the society. To be
sustained under these articles with the basic concept of human dignity at the core
of these articles. The objective in imposing it must be with respect for the dignity of
men. Under these standards, the taking of life because "the wrongdoer deserves it",
surely must fail for such punishment had its very basis the total denial of the
wrongdoer's dignity and worth.
Death penalty is morally unacceptable. Death penalty is not the only punishment
that fits the crime such as murder. Besides, all murderers dont deserve death.

According to Robert S. Gerstein, retribution requires us to punish a member of the

community who has acted unjustly, but there are limits to the severity of the
punishment. We must treat the criminal with the respect due to the member of the
community, and because of this requirement, we cannot deliberately kill a person
because this punishment show a lack of respect for the moral worth and dignity of
the person.