A DEFENSE OF THE DEATH PENALTY

There is an ancient tradition, going back to biblical times but endorsed by

the main-stream of philosophers, from Plato to Thomas Aquinas, from
Thomas Hobbes to Immanuel Kant, Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart Mill, and C.
S. Lewis, that a fitting punishment for murder is the execution of the
murderer. One prong of this tradition, the backward-looking or deontological
position, epitomized in Aquinas and Kant, holds that because human beings,
as rational agents, have dignity, one who with malice aforethought kills a
human being, forfeits his or her right to life and deserves to die. The other,
the forward-looking or consequentialist tradition, exemplified by Jeremy
Bentham, Mill, and Ernest van den Haag, holds that punishment ought to
serve as a deterrent, and that capital punishment is an adequate deterrent
to prospective murderers. I will argue that both traditional defenses are
sound and together they make a strong case for retaining the death penalty.
That is, I hold a combined theory of punishment: a backward-looking
judgment that the criminal has committed a heinous crime plus a
forwardlooking judgment that a harsh punishment will deter would-be
murderers are sufficient to justify the death penalty. I turn first to the
retributivist theory in favor of capital punishment.
By Curt Lovelace bio

Capital punishment is an emotionally charged topic. Its also muddied by rhetoric of both the
uninformed and the dogmatic. Usually occasioned by a murder conviction, the death penalty
stirs people to dizzying emotional heights as they argue for either the commutation of
supposedly barbaric method of punishment or for the just execution of a deserving criminal. Its
a painful subject for many. Yet capital punishment is a subject that needs to be discussed, and
be exposed to the light of Gods Word.
Simply put, God authorizes governments to rightly administer capital punishment to the vilest
offenders in society. Although many claim the contrary, this has neither been diluted nor
replaced by any teaching of the New Testament.
There are numerous groups in the United States dedicated to abolishing capital punishment as
a cruel and barbaric response to crime or perceived crime, as some view criminal behavior.
Some members of these groups are guided by their love of humanity, however misguided that
love. Some believe that Jesus taught that love outstripped the Old Testament law. However,
while these lines of reasoning are understandable in a culture that denies Biblical authority, such
motives are demonstrably wrong.
Common
Fallacies
Death penalty opponents in the United States believe that death row is over-populated. This is
hardly the case. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice website, 71 persons were executed in
this country in 2002. That same site states, At yearend 2001, 37 States and the Federal prison
system held 3,581 prisoners under sentence of death, 20 fewer than at yearend 2000. All had

committed murder. The most recent census indicates that 281,421,906 people lived in this
nation as of April, 2000. Sentencing deserving criminals to death has not reached epidemic
proportions.

LITERARY
FOLIO

Ang ipinagbabawal na mga gamot, ilegal na mga droga, inaabusong

mga gamot o mapanganib na mga gamot ay tumutukoy sa anumang
sangkap, hindi kasama ang tubig at mga pagkain, na nakapagpapabago sa
takbo ng kaisipan ng tao at katawan din ng tao. Maaaring makaapekto ang
droga sa isip lamang ng tao o sa katawan ng tao, subalit maaari ring
parehong maapektuhan ang mga ito. Sa malawakang kahulugan,

kinabibilangan ang mga bawal na gamot ng mga produktong drogang

maykapeina, tabako, mga nalalanghap na sangkap o mga inhalante,
ang marihuwana o cannabis, heroina, at mga isteroyd.