Capital punishment, or the death
penalty, is the killing of a person by judicial process as a punishment for an
offense. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes
or capital offences. The term capital originates from Latin word ‘capitalis’
, literally
means "regarding the head" (Latin caput). Hence, a capital crime was
originally one punished by the severing of the head.
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| Capital Punishment (Death Penalty): A tool to curb the menace of crime.
MEANING
OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The infliction of death by an
Authority as a punishment is called capital punishment.'
HISTORY
OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
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OEgypt introduces capital punishment
in 16th century BC.
OBy 7th century BC Draconian Code of
Athens provided the death penalty for all crimes.
OGreek philosopher Socrates is
executed by being forced to drink poison.
O29 AD Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
O1279, 89 Jews were hanged.
O1531, boiling to death was accepted
as a death penalty.
O1924, first execution by cyanide
gas took place in Nevada.
O1930, Mrs. Eva Dugan was the first
female to be executed in Arizona.
O1965, New York, West Virginia and
Vermont ended the death penalty.
ARGUMENTS
IN FAVOUR of CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Capital Punishment is the highest penalty provided by the India Penal Code, 1860
by which the criminals may be deterred. We can justify the validity of Capital
Punishment by following arguments.
O It deters people and other
criminals.
By awarding a capital punishment to criminals, we can deter the other criminals,
who are about to commit the crime and who are having criminal mentality.
O It is a social need.
person committing crime is a curse for the society and he used to disturb peace of
the society. in this way it is a social need to eradicate such type of anti social
element from the society, it can be achieved through capital punishment only.
O It saves the state money.
If we are awarding life imprisonment to the accused in stead of capital punishment,
we have to spent huge amount of money for the well being of the accused. On
the other hand if the capital punishment is awarded to the accused, he will be
hanged immediately and there is no need to spent any amount on him, so in this way
state money will be saved
O Humanitarian.
In India capital punishment is awarded in rarest of rare case and only in case of
serious offence. In some cases accused kills victim very inhumanly. By awarding
capital punishment we are treating the accused humanly, really he deserve inhuman
treatment.
O It is definite.
Capital punishment is the definite process to remove the criminal from the society.
If life imprisonment is given to the accused he may be return to the society and
repeat the crime.
O It is moral war.
Crime is immoral person and the moral values expects that such criminal deserves
capital punishment.
O Selected process to fight with anti
social elements,
O It is legal demand.
O It is given in rarest of rare case.
In Indian criminal justice system life imprisonment is the rule and capital
punishment is the exception and it is given in rarest of rare case only.
O Reduces crowd in jail.
Almost all jails in India confronting the problem of over crowding an if we want to
overcome from such problem we must favour capital punishment.
O To abolish death sentence is the
function of legislator not the judiciary.
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