By: Asifa A Rasool Khowaja
[ The writer is a Law student, Motivational Speaker, Human Rights Activist]
Capital punishment is also known as death penalty that grant by government to practice sanctioned in which person is put to death by government for commission of a capital crime(crimes that are punishable by death are known as capital crimes) such as murder, mass murder, cases of rape, child rape, child sexual abuse, terrorism, treason, offenses against the state, aircraft hijacking, drug trafficking, drug dealing,war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, act of recidivism, aggravated robbery and kidnapping. Capital punishment is a legal penalty under the United States federal government criminal justice system.
Capital punishment is defined as the sentence ordering that someone be punished to death sentence. Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Pakistan. Although there have been numerous amendments to the constitution, there is yet to be a provision prohibiting the death penalty as a punitive remedy.
Capital punishment due to moral obligations is defended on the ground of society to provide protection and safety along with welfare of citizens. Capital punishment is a great lesson for all the murderers that threaten citizen due to their bad intention by wasting lives of innocent, only by putting murderer to death can society ensure that convicted killers do not kill again.
A moratorium on executions was imposed in 208. No executions occurred from 2009 to 2011, with 1 in 2012 and 0 in 2013. The moratorium was lifted fully after the massacre of 132 students and 9 members of staff of the army public school and degree college Peshawar, and routine executions resumed. Pakistan carried out 7 executions in 2014, 326 in 2015, 87 in 2016, 65 in 2017 and in 2018. Hanging is the only legal method of execution
Despite the fundamental right to life entrenched in its constitution, the court has jurisdiction to sentence a person to death. As part of the constitution gives the court the right to find an individual guilty of any crimes punishable by death under the penal code (act XLV of 1860).
Fifty six countries retain capital punishment, 106 countries have completely abolished it de jure for all crimes, and eight have abolished it for ordinary crimes (while maintaining it for special circumstances such as war crimes) and 28 are abolitionist in practice. In European Union, article 2 of the charter of fundamental rights of European Union prohibits use of capital punishment. The council of Europe has sought to abolish the use of the death penalty.
Capital punishment strives to prevent criminals from committing capital offenses and violent crimes by terminating the lives of those convicted which had been effected by those criminals. Capital punishment only reinforces violent behavior and serves no purpose but to avenge victims and their families. Society is endorsing revenge by embracing the death penalty. Capital punishment support deterrent theory because it tends to give criminals a lesson of not repeating that crime again.
Some states think that it should be banned because it violates human rights and it doesn’t deter other criminals that commit capital offenses. There is no credible evidence that capital punishment or death penalty deters criminal from committing those crime more effectively than a prison term. It is becoming a social taboo instead of its basic purpose of deterrence. Some people oppose capital punishment believes, that any person including the government has no right to take life for any reason.
From a research it is cleared that abolishing capital punishment in Canada has steadily declined murder rate. Death penalty is reasonable because it scares people away from doing things that are illegal. In some cases it is a need of time because it tends to be a lesson for those criminals that commit crimes and aren’t afraid of any punishment in the state. It protects citizens from these types of harmful criminals .