Recently, the issue of death penalty is discussed drastically in Taiwan.
What’s your view toward the death penalty?
Do you agree to abolish the death penalty?
Why do you agree or why do you disagree?
If you are the Secretary of Justice, will you agree to execute the murders?
Topic contributed by Tina Lee. Next one is Joy.
I personally come out in favor of keeping the death penalty as a precaution. First, some supporters of abolishing the capital punishment deem that countries have no right to derive criminals’ lives and legislate against murder at the same time. In other words, cons of the extreme penalty consider that a nation could not be a headman. I think the reason is improper. Government is selected by citizens so it has the obligation to protect people and the right to punish criminals. For example, a normal person cannot withdraw license from a drunk driver. However, a police officer can because he or she is the law executer for a government, for avoiding most people’s right are violated. In my opinion, it is nonsense to mention the official power and a person’s right in the same breath.
回覆刪除Second, some advocates of human rights say that execution makes certain culprits who have repented for their crimes lose a chance to be a new man. I have to say that it is hard to differentiate a new man, a good man and a bad guy. I mean that most of the convicts of death sentence violated other’s right to live before. If these repented criminals can resocialize, who can ensure that they are reborn as a good man indeed? And, I doubt that those who infringe on others’ rights do have rights to restart. I disagree the word “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” But, I do not deny that the death penalty can be seen as crime deterrence to supervise that a new man is a good man or not.
Third, some agree to abolish the capital punishment due to evitable miscarriages of justice. Nevertheless, I think that these two things are entirely not related. Once there is no death sentence, there are no miscarriages of justice? Definitely not. To abolish the capital punishment can only make sure that no one will be executed. But it can not avoid the victims of undeserved sentences. On contrary, without death penalty, the victims of recidivists might increase.
As a result, if I were the Secretary of Justice, I will agree to execute the capital punishment.
Tina Lee
When it comes to abolish dead penalty, it always causes a drastic discussion. In my opinion, I think is hard to stop when it began carrying out. Because our society is already accustomed to that murderers should sentence to dead. After a long while, when someone suddenly say that our country should abolish dead penalty. It definitely will cause a big controversial issue. One the one hand, people who experienced a beloved who was killed or murdered by criminals must stand that our country must keep dead penalty. Because there is sorrow and hatred in their mind, they can not forgive the one who took their beloved’s life away. On the other hand, people who never experienced the grief of losing their beloved may not have strong opinion about whether abolish dead penalty or not. It is what I thought about dead penalty so far. I can not surely say that I am agree or disagree with this issue because it is a really difficult decision.
回覆刪除Hello, ladies. After thinking for a while, I find that the topic in this week seems not simple. So, I search for some information to help you guys to write on this issue easier. And, Hope you can get some insights from following resources. Hope to receive your response soon.
回覆刪除1. A blog about philosophy, though it is written in Chinese, the blogger makes a thorough discussion toward abolishing death penalty.
http://phiphicake.blogspot.com/2010/02/blog-post_01.html
2. Wikipedia about the capital punishment (English)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_debate
3. A report from National Policy Foundation (NPF) (Chinese)
http://old.npf.org.tw/PUBLICATION/CL/090/CL-R-090-056.htm
These reference materials are only for reference. If you have other information to share with me, feel free. I am glad to learn and discuss with you.
Sincerely yours
Tina Lee
I agree with you, May. You don’t want to choose each side related to abolish the death penalty because the issue is complicated. To be neutral is a kind of option. I admire you to find a gray area between pro and con. And, you mentioned that the debate on capital punishment needs time to discuss. It is a gradual change rather than drastic one. I have some extra ideas to share with you after reading your comments.
回覆刪除As I know, there are no death sentence in Europe except for Latvia and Belarus. I find that these countries in Europe must pass through a greatly long time without extreme penalty. Hence, I have to say that the very long time is exact the preparation for abolishing death sentence. But, “how long the time is?” you may ask. So, I think that the length of preparation time must be known after the capital punishment in this country is abolished. To make short of the matter, a very long time without homicides is one of the causes to abolish the death sentence.
Since we don’t have another two ladies’ opinion, I take a break and leave some rooms for you to write/speak out your thoughts. Next time, I will give you some extra opinions toward death penalty.
Hope to hear from you. Thank you.
Kind regards,
Tina Lee
In my opinion, death penalty shouldn’t be abolished. One might say it is bad that “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, I agree with this, but I think what murders do to those victims is very cruel, so they deserved death penalty as punishment. Those murders killed victims first, and in my opinion, those murders are the most brutal ones, so they don’t have the right to say judges deprive their rights. I don’t think death penalty deprived murders’ human right because murders deprived victims’ human right at first. One might say murders’ family will feel sad, but why doesn’t one consider victims’ family feelings? Someone mentioned the probability of justice miscarriage, but I think this is less possible because before those criminals are sentenced to death, they have to go through three judicial process to be judged whether they should be sentenced to death or not. One might say the judges will deprive murders’ right to be a new man if dearth penalty isn’t abolished, but I don’t think so. Actually, many bad guys always say that they will change after they leave prison and be a good man, but I don’t believe in what murders say because most of them are caught after few days and appear on the newspaper again.
回覆刪除If I am the Secretary of Justice, I will agree to execute the murders. In my opinion, I believe in the justice system because judges don’t want to kill a person, too. Therefore, judges sentence those murders to death is reasonable; those murders deserved death penalty because they must be do something that can’t be forgiven. Recently, I saw a horrible news on TV because a woman killed three persons in order to get insurance money. How cruel the woman! She was sentence to death penalty, but because the fierce discussion of death penalty now, I still don’t know whether she will be executed in the future. In conclusion, I think death penalty shouldn’t be abolished because it can protect other people from dangers and regulate murders because murders are afraid of being dead. All in all, death penalty should exist!
I strongly disagree with abolishing death penalty in Taiwan. Every time I saw the news on TV about some criminal activities around the world, I would feel extremely disappointed about human beings. I wonder how they have the “courage” to commit a crime, especially when it related to taking someone’s live away. Sometimes it was just a misunderstanding between two people, and then the result became a serious one like who killed who. Thus, two or even more families collapsed. And nowadays even walk on the street could be killed by others. In Taiwan, we could still see tons of news about crimes which are cruel and cold blood like Father raped his own daughter or son killed his own mother; not to mention crimes like walking on the street and is killed by strangers. If we were one of the victims’ family or we were the victims, would we forgive the killer? Our live would have a tremendous change due to the crime which harm us, is it easy for us to let the killer freely live?
回覆刪除When the issue of abolishing death penalty was raised, I did not pay a lot attention on this because I regard it as an impossible thing to abolish death penalty in current Taiwan. I know some countries or groups believe in the importance of human right; they regard human rights as the first priority of everything. However, I think for people who intend to harm other’s live or even take away other’s live, they do not deserve to have the protection from laws of the human rights because they have already destroyed their own human rights. I saw some related news about some killers who committed serious crimes and had the sentence of death penalty, but they still live in the jails and the date of execution is not decided yet. But, do they know the feeling of the victims’ families? I saw an old couple cried and mourned for their daughter who was killed by a thief cruelly. It had been about ten years but the killer is still alive. Is that really fair for innocent people? This is the consequence of having a death penalty, and what it would become if we really abolish the death penalty?
According to what I had mentioned before, if I am the Secretary of Justice, I would execute the murders. Especially those who had bad and direct intention toward harming people and committed cruel crimes, I would put them on the priority list for execution. I know it might sound mean or someone would wonder whether I become a murder as well, however, as the Secretary of Justice, I need to really put the concept of justice into practice. Otherwise, the society would lose their faith toward the law then it would become really hard to rule a country.
Recently, I read a reflection paper from one of my learning buddies, Jane. In this paper, she has mentioned other opinions toward death penalty. Jane makes a discussion with her friends in Law Department. Jane and her friends are in favor of keeping life sentence. Nevertheless, her friend says that a person will not be sentenced to death if he/she only kills one person.
回覆刪除After reading this article, I realize that why our law will allow a killer who “only” deprives of one life to reform. In my opinion, this is not a math problem concerning one life or two lives at all. Instead, the regulation in the law corresponds to the function of law, to protect people. Apparently, criminals are in the range of people should be protected in our law. However, I cannot agree with this regulation since motive and outcome are equally important as far as I am concerned. The concepts of motive and outcome make me associate with a movie, Minority Report. In the movie, a person will be put into jail for his/her prospective crime. I consider it ridiculous because the police are eager to catch the criminal-to-be rather than protect the victim-to-be. I am afraid that if the capital punishment is abolished in Taiwan, criminals will be protected but the public will be panic. As a result, I deem that judges should determine a person’s guilty or innocence from his/her motive, behavior and action.
Wow! It is obvious that all of you think that death penalty should not be abolished. After reading your comments, I do agree with some points. But I still choose to remain neutral. On this issue, I think a lot of things. Those who take lives of others away should be punished. It is definitely true. However, I think that not each person who once committed homicide is a bad guy. There are great many of causes and changes concerning this concept. And I am confused also. In short, I just do not have any strong opinion on whether abolish death penalty or not. It is a difficult question to think. I always think too much and believe that there is nothing that is supposed to be like. In other words, there are great many causes and situations in our live. We will never know what to do is the best. We can only say that making this decision is better not the best. The best situation hard to find or even do not exist. Therefore, I prefer let this topic goes back to the original place where it was before.
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