Bryce Bradshaw-White                        English Communication                                           901170G
Capital Punishment: It's a crime.
The Australian media has been in a frenzy these past three months due to the 'upcoming' executions of the Bali nine ringleader duo, which has once again been delayed yet another week. The constantly occurring delays are becoming harder for the Indonesian government to explain, showing they are reconsidering their position on the matter, likely due to the constant persuasion of the Australian government against their executions, or due to them finally realising the huge amount of statistics against capital punishment. Capital punishment is not justice, it's simply another crime.

Whilst arguments continue to rage on whether it's an injustice or not, the statistics keep appearing and are supporting the side against the death penalty. Amnesty International conducted a study in 2008, collecting information from around the world regarding death penalties. What they discovered was truly horrifying: that year alone, close to ten thousand criminals were sentenced to death, and two thousand five hundred were executed that year, not including China or North Korea whom suspiciously refused to answer. These numbers are shockingly colossal, as it means that approximately twenty-eight people each day were told they were going to be executed, with seven criminals also being killed each day. This is a countless, measureless loss of life each day, not considering the countless generations that could have followed each who died. Another study by Amnesty International that same year revealed another disgusting fact, that over one hundred and fifty people whom were previously on death row were proven innocent that year when the primary evidence convicting them was proven false. Not only do the courts get the evidence wrong and almost kill innocent men and women, they get it wrong frequently. Furthermore, this presents an important question: how many innocent men and women were executed that year, or each year?

Capital punishment is also shown to be highly ineffective, with information produced by the FBI showing that crime rates in the 14 American states that have outlawed capital punishment having significantly lower crime rates than the 36 which still use the death sentence. Clearly this shows that the death penalty is so ineffective as a deterrent that it is in fact having an opposite effect to what was intended. Considering what a death punishment entails, this is understandable; if one has been executed, one is not forced to make up for anything they have done, nor endure the hardships inflicted by it. It simply goes away, permanently. Life imprisonment on the other hand forces the criminal to think about what they had done for the rest of their life, until they die naturally from another such incident in prison. Would this not logically be more effective as a deterrent?

Executions have also been shown to be highly hazardous, and not just in the intended way. A study conducted by the BBC in America reveals that America's preferred form of execution, lethal injection, has a seven point one percent chance of going disastrously wrong if not outright failing. In fact, the only method of execution in America with a one hundred percent success rate is death by firing line, of which there have been only thirty six in America in the past one hundred and ten years. You don't need statistics to know this is true as in mid-2014, as recent as last year, one such failed execution transpired. One Clayton Lockett was to be executed using a new three drug cocktail combination that had not been tested. This turned out to be closer to a mock-tail compared to previous combinations when Clayton was declared unconscious -  promptly followed by him stating "oh man, i'm not, something's wrong." If that hadn't frightened the executioners, then the realisation of what had happened surely would have. The needle had slipped out of it's point of injection, releasing the chemicals into his surrounding tissue. Not enough drugs were in his system to kill him, nor were there enough left to finish him. The final forty minutes of Clayton Lockett's life life was filled with indescribable pain as he writhed and fought against his restraints, until he finally died of a heart attack. This is clearly showing the danger of a failed execution, which of note goes against the American constitutions 'eighth amendment' which states no man may be punished with strange or cruel punishments; Shown by Mr. Lockett's death is that all executions have the potential to be severely cruel and thus, all break the law one way or another.

Thousands are executed each year. Of them, seventy-one will die due to a mistake in the execution. Many are dying, some painfully, statistics are showing it isn't working, it's breaking laws and yet it keeps happening. It is clearly, undeniably not a punishment, but a crime. The crime has to be stopped.