The death penalty is the capital punishment for the most serious crimes and is still used in many countries. However, the number of countries that have abolished executions de jure or de facto is growing.
The death penalty has been abolished in most highly developed countries. Why?
It is clear that in developing countries or those lagging behind in development by some criteria or simply in comparison with other countries, such actions (executions) have completely different goals than in the countries that will be discussed. There it can be a policy of intimidation, repression, and so on. But in civilized countries, this issue should be resolved at the highest level and with all that it implies.
Considering that in many of these countries the legal system is strong enough in the sense that any accused has the right to defense, including gratuitous ones, and also by default is considered innocent until proven otherwise, it is only necessary to decide to send a person to the forefathers, having all the cards in hand. There are many literary works, films and real stories in which innocent people were killed as a warning to the imperfection of the legal system.
The main question that worries many supporters of the death penalty is why a criminal should be given the right to life in prison at the expense of taxes from citizens of the country. The person is seriously to blame, and resources continue to be spent on him at the expense of the inhabitants of the country.
In addition, many people change their point of view abruptly when a question from one side or the other concerns them personally. Even harsh opponents of the death penalty can change their position to the diametrically opposite in a situation when a particular grave crime has been committed against their loved ones.
The majority of world religions, as well as the principles of humanism, are against the death penalty. Opponents of the death penalty also point out that the introduction or abolition of capital punishment itself has practically no effect on the statistics of serious crimes. Thus, the execution becomes not so much a punishment for the criminal as a sacrifice for the sake of a society thirsting for revenge.
The trend towards a reduction in the practice and the abolition of the death penalty emerged after the Second World War. And one of the key factors that influenced this was the humanistic provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, according to which one of the key rights of every person is the right to life. The abolition of the death penalty is also recommended by the resolutions of the UN General Assembly.
Today 130 countries do not use the death penalty in their legal practice.
Capital punishment continues to be used in 68 countries.
