Capital Punishment Creates More Victims

The death penalty is said to be for victims rights, to give them a sense of closure. However, once the accused are executed, an entire new group of victims is created, his loved ones. There is no closure for these victims. When confronted with this topic, it is often said well he should have thought about that before he took another persons life. Whether or not those on death row thought of this or not, there are still innocent victims, who will suffer. It is an entirely different form of suffering than that of the victim of murder. It is devastating when a family finds out their loved one was murdered. But how much harder it is for a mother to be told her son will be murdered, it is not known yet when, but he will be. But, she is basically told when we do know the execution date, you can watch as we do it. If that right there does not violate the 8th amendment, then I do not know what does. No one can say that the innocent loved ones of an accused murderer are not being put under cruel and unusual punishment, by having to sit on the edge of their seats, at the mercy of a justice system awaiting the word if their loved one will live or die.

If people are going to shout victims rights, then they need to care about all of the victims involved: the parents, children, spouses, and friends of the accused. On top of this, the loved ones of the inmates executed are not given nearly the same amount of grief counseling and support from the outside world. There needs to be a point where the violence must stop. What is it that society is teaching children? It is certainly not to turn the other cheek. The death penalty is showing society that it is ok to kill someone who killed. That violence somehow reciprocates violence. How can violence reciprocate violence? If that were the case, why is it a rapist isn't raped for punishment? Or why isnt a robber then robbed? How about an arsonist, should we in return set their house ablaze?

There are states that do not have the death penalty; they have the option of life without parole. If someone spends the rest of their lives in prison, do you think they will not be reminded of their crime daily? They must wake up in their reality every day knowing that what they did is what got them there. When a child is punished, is that child really going to change their ways by one spanking? Or taking something they love and cherish away from them for a month? For that month, it will seem like the longest time for that child, reminding themselves day after day that they cannot play their video games, or see their friends because they did something bad.

"An execution is not simply death. It is just as different from the privation of life as a concentration camp is from prison. It adds to death a rule, a public premeditation known to the future victim, an organization which is itself a source of moral sufferings more terrible than death. Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated can be compared. For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life." Albert Camous"Reflections on the Guillotine, Resistance, Rebellion & Death" (1966).

Our hearts go out to all the murder victims loved ones, we only ask that people become aware of the other set of victims. A set of victims who must live in a world of pain and despair as they await the state sanctioned murder of their own loved one. We ask that the death penalty be removed and replaced with life without parole, and also for more effective rehabilitation programs for inmates that are due to be released from prison. The justice system as we know it is flawed. How many more victims must be created before there is an end to this barbaric and torturous violence being used to retaliate against a murderer? We are asking for a nationwide moratorium to be issued. Please stop this never ending chain of victims.