Death Penalty should be legalized Research Paper

Death Penalty should be legalized - Research Paper Example This was to be upheld by all the member states of the UN. From the very beginning, the death penalty had been embroiled in controversy. The aforementioned International Bill of Human Rights was proclaimed in the year 1948, by the UN. However, this did not include any reference to the death penalty. It took nine years of debate, for the UN General Assembly to include a statement regarding the death penalty. This transpired in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Evans). As such, death penalty issues have been accorded a place in human rights. In the societies of the world, the list of penalties tend to be execution, loss of liberty by means of imprisonment or other restrictions on movement, corporal punishment, loss of property, mutilation, such as the amputation of the limbs, and loss of opportunities, such as the revocation of a driver’s license. The list of penalties for crime could vary to some extent, on the basis of the society involved. Nevertheless, deterrence would be the perceived objective of any system of penalties. It is in this context that one has to view a system of criminal justice that does not have a deterrence effect (Davis 23). Such a system would be rejected as being of no worth whatsoever. In addition, several academic studies, conducted in the recent past, have clearly shown that the death penalty has a significant deterrent effect upon murder. The analysts of these studies have declared that between three to eighteen lives could be saved for every convicted murderer who is put to death. In this context, the study conducted by Naci Mocan assumes significance. This study, which was conducted in the year 2003, by Mocan and other researchers determined that every execution would reduce the number of homicides by five. On the other hand, commuting a death sentence would translate into an increase of five in the number of