Throughout history many saints have been unfairly martyred for bad reasons. If the death penalty was not legal these people would have lived out great and long lives. Even Jesus was sentenced to death and his ministry ended quickly. It is not up to us to decide who should live and who should die. As people of the human race we should be civil to everyone, even people who have done bad things. The United States public needs to know the dangers of what happens during the procedure and how horrendous it is. In the past, guards did horrible things to people who were on death row that could be considered worse than the crime that they were sentenced for. Although sometimes prisoners cannot be helped, capital punishment is an inhumane way of treatment and a lot of prisoners show decent mental capacity.
Born sometime before A.D. 44, Saint James the Greater was a dedicated follower of Jesus. Saint James started his ministry after Jesus’ Ascension and was an amazing teacher of God’s word. He spread the teachings of Jesus Christ all throughout Spain and Israel. Saint James witnessed the Transfiguration and the miracle of the many fish. The blessed Mother Mary appeared to James and told him to build a Church. When he got back to Israel he was given an unfair trial and swiftly and fiercely executed by King Herod for worshiping Jesus and spreading the Good News. James was the first Apostle that was martyred and this should not have happened. If the death penalty was as frowned upon back then as it is now so many people would not have been innocently convicted. James the Greater should serve as a model for the horrendous ways of capital punishment and how long it has been affecting people in bad ways. The killing of another human being makes the executor on almost the same level as the inmate being executed. These people have the power to take away the life of someone else. These practices truly do not show us to love our neighbors.
There has been over 1,446 executions in the United States through different means since 1976. 1,446 lives were taken away unjustly and immorally. Is it really that important to have these prisoners off of the Earth and away? These people could have done recoveries. Furthermore, as of January 19, 2017 157 prisoners were exonerated and proven that their crimes were false. How many more that were innocent is unknown but there could have been a lot more. Capital punishment is also very inhumane. Over 276 prisoners executions’ have been botched. In the lethal injection category alone,(which is the most common method now) there has been 75 botched injections. That is a 7.12% rate of failure for a procedure that takes away a life. This is horrible and painful to the prisoners who were executed. In Utah, they still use the firing squad to execute inmates in extreme cases. Just 30 years after World War II America was executing people in the same awful way as Nazi Germany with, firing squads, and gas chambers like the horrible Nazis practiced. As said by a reporter who documented another execution,“He struggled, made guttural noises, gasped for air and choked for about 10 minutes before succumbing to a new, two-drug execution method.” With horrible results like these it is not hard to see why 18 states and the District of Columbia have outlawed this practice.
Inmates on death row wait an average of 10 years for execution. In one case in 2010 an inmate waited nearly 15 years only to die of natural causes. The excruciating pain of sitting for upwards of 3650 days with nothing to do but sit is not only horrendous but is also unethical and unprincipled. When God saw that Cain had killed Abel he did not strike him with his power but he forgave him and tried to comfort him and show Cain his bad actions. We should similarly show prisoners mercy and let them live out their lives in prison not sentence them to death. Now only 49% of Americans approve of it and 42% oppose the inhumane death penalty. Is this what Jesus would have wanted when he said love your neighbor? Sadly, in other countries the thinking is not the same. In China the exact number since 2007 of executed inmates is unknown but is on the thousands. Staggeringly, in 2013 778 inmates have been sentenced to death. This statistic is roughly half of all the executions to date in the United States since 1977. In Iran, more than 1,663 people have been executed from 2007-2012. If the United States wants to be the country to model for the whole world, we first need to show and demonstrate humane treatment of all our citizens.
It is not fair to execute inmates who have mental impairments or disabilities. In a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, across all political spectrums and regions of the United States, the majority of people said that executing those with mental disabilities is wrong and is improper. This does not represent the policy that all men are created fair and equal. These men and women could find out who they really are and how to cope with what they did and their disabilities. In 2011, a criminal with a horrible history was declared to be mentally unstable to go on the stand to defend himself in court. These criminals do need the same trials as others and the same sentences, but should be counseled and taught of what their actions did to others and how it affected themselves. One sad example of a mentally inmate is Cecil Clayton. Cecil had his frontal lobe removed and had an IQ that sat at around 71. He was aware of what was wrong with him and tried to get it treated but it did not work out and he killed somebody in 1996. Cecil’s lawyers argued that he was unfairly tried for somebody with such bad mental disabilities. If we give more money to mental spending we can cut back on incidents like that.
Ultimately, the death penalty will be done away with in the next 20 years. It existed back in James’ time and still exists now. If we let prisoners off of death row and let them do their time it will be a better result for all. Life will be respected, people are given second chances, and inmates can make their peace with God throughout the rest of the life that they live. The death penalty was a public event in Jesus’ time and has devolved into a movement that has very few countries still practicing it. In Australia, there has not been a life taken because of the death penalty in 50 years. Hopefully, the death penalty will be something that we will only have to worry about a lot less in 100 years.