The Reflection of “Abolition of the Death Penalty”

To abolish the death penalty is carrying out and a new trend for more than two-thirds countries in the world. Most of them already abolished the death sentence for over 40 years. And some of countries are de facto stopped the death penalty either in law or in practice. However, some countries for instance including China, Japan, and U.S. still put people to death for the crimes they have committed. On the other hand, the EU (European Union) is on the cutting edge of the fight against the capital punishment. Therefore, the EU is constantly raising the issue with countries that still execute the death sentence. The EU suggests some ways to achieve abolition, such as active discussion by the intellectual and parliamentarian groups, or political debate to proposal a new legislation without death penalty. In fact, Taiwan has also getting involved in this controversial issue recently. Wang Ching-feng, the former Minister of Justice, had publicly showed her attitude in favor of abolition of the death penalty permanently in 2010, and further emphasized that she would not sign any document of capital punishment. Her sensational speech soon aroused the society, some of the families of victims and politicians have criticized her speech and accused her ruthless, which caused her step down by the highly social pressures. In my opinion for this issue, I agree with her and the human rights policy based on some following concepts. First, most supporters of the capital punishment regard that the convicts deserved the death for what they had done. But they seem have forgotten that killing people is always wrong. Next, they agree the death penalty with the "deterrent effect" for people and those who intent to crime. The fact is, there is no evidence of deterrent effect, and the life imprisonment without parole would be effective enough to prevent criminals. Moreover, mistakes are usually happened, people should not be put to death for the crimes they did not commit if the judgments were wrong. However, the issue of capital punishment is still argued by the mass media and politicians. Although the majority of people in Taiwan are against to abolish the death penalty, I know the issue is the path of leading a country to civilization and democracy. And I deeply believed that living in a liberal and democratic country should learn more about the meanings of “tolerate” and “forgiveness” based on the above reasons.

Article from Taipei Times:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/10/10/2003484992

Written by William (410 words)