60% of the world’s population still live in areas practicing the death penalty.  

Like the saying goes: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, we continue to hear news overseas of criminals killed by the death penalty. This ineffective and wretched system is meant to prevent future crime and punish those guilty. But has it made the societies that practice it any safer?  
 
If the death penalty is not the answer to the progression of our global crime situation, it will only punish our world into never-ending regression. This Reaper-esque power we have granted our Justice System can easily be misused.

In order to close a case and shush the public, all under the guise of this “tooth for tooth” justice, what can’t they do?  

I believe that there are truly smarter techniques to handle these criminals, but complete abolishment of the death penalty from our world, is our first goal. Once this murderous power has been extinguished, we can start placing the money and time normally splurged on trials and executing criminals, into worthy use. If we want to improve the staggering crime rates around the globe, we must first eliminate chances for irreversible mistakes and prejudice in our Justice System. 
 
Executions are highly-publicized and horrifyingly easy to access, as the web is scattered with these gruesome videos and images.

However, even with the confronting nature of the punishment, death has little fear to a determined offender, as changes to our crime situation have been miniscule. I know that the establishment has not, and never will, be the source of future crime prevention.  
Let’s take drug traffickers, for example. These offenders are often attracted to that large flow of money, and so their irresistible reward is worth the risk of some capital punishment.  
 
Now, even scientific research has failed to produce any evidence to demonstrate that the death penalty holds a strong crime discouragement effect, versus a long-term prison sentence.  

In fact, since Canada had formally banned capital punishment in 1976, the country’s homicide rate has steadily declined. As of 2016 statistics, their murder rate has been their lowest since the 1960s. Therefore, we know that absolute removal of the death penalty is not directly linked to increased homicide rates. Moreover, in 2002, Canada’s murder rate was three times lower than the U.S.’s, who still uses the death penalty.  
 
Our society should never allow wrongful executions of anyone guilt-free, yet countless sickening cases have proven this false. 

Perhaps the urgency and demand for justice outweighs concrete and factual evidence, and this is a typical factor for these unjust killings. Unfortunately, one’s race, social status, and the quality of the defence team also decide the fate for the convicted. 

Discriminatory application of the death penalty is further proof of how twisted this practice is, and why we really should remove this penalty from the whole world. 
 
I interviewed one of my classmates, Gabrielle, who is also against capital punishment, and this is her take on the practice: “I think for our world to make progress; we need to fully let go of something dispensable like this. Otherwise, we’d just slip back. Capital punishment is like a switch that snuffs out not just a human’s life, but also opportunities for an even better resolve.”  
 
This comes down to whether the victim’s family and loved ones are given closure.

We must terminate the death penalty from any spot and speck of our world to properly serve justice to all victims, and for once, provide the right assurance for affected communities.

It is no longer about the criminal; it is about the victims. 

Why do we need any more innocent lives whisked away from us? Isn’t it about time we acknowledge the solid fact that the death penalty will never deserve a spot in our present, and future?