Ellie Usher

            This week we read two articles about the death penalty. One defending the death penalty and the other in opposition of the death penalty. The first article “Why We Should Put the Death Penalty to Rest”, the author brings up many interesting point of views regarding the death penalty. One of the points he brings up is the “eye for an eye” concept. He states that many people believe that the death penalty is a fitting punishment because the murderer deserves to receive a punishment equal to what they have inflicted on someone else. Nathanson brings up the problem of some types of murder. One of his main arguments against the death penalty with the eye for an eye concept is when the murderer kills his enemy’s family. Nathanson says that if people believe in the eye for an eye concept in defense of the death penalty, they would have to believe, in this case, that you would kill the family of the murderer. That is the true eye for an eye in this situation. This was an interesting concept, that I personally have never considered. I do not fully believe in the concept of an eye for an eye, but if we were basing our justice system on vengefulness, our society would not be very productive.

            The other article, “A Defense of the Death Penalty”, argued that we need to keep the death penalty. The author of this article points out many of the objections to the death penalty then addresses why these are invalid. One of the arguments is that the death penalty is based on revenge rather than retribution. His counterargument to this is that revenge would require a personal connection to the victim. He says that revenge also causes more harm to the offender than the offender caused the victim. With the retribution of the death penalty it is ensured that the suffering of the offender is death in the simplest way.

            I personally do not believe in the death penalty in most cases. I feel that we use the death penalty far too often. Also, when a person is sentenced to death, their suffering is over. They pay with their life, but then they no longer need to deal with the punishment. If they were, instead, sentenced to life in prison, every day they would have to deal with what they have done.