LOSING ONE'S HEAD OVER A DEBATE

There seems to be a looming debate (again) over the death penalty. Some church groups state that this is un-Christian since nobody has the right to take another man's life. Others say the death penalty for heinous crimes would only encourage further killings. Say what?

Citing the fact that rape and murder are both heinous crimes, a rapist would be encouraged to kill his victim. He has nothing to lose by finishing her off since he is liable to the death penalty whether he kills her or not. He also has everything to gain: if she is dead, there is no one to accuse him of rape.

Still others observe that the death penalty has not discouraged criminals at all, and that on the contrary, the crime rate has risen.

They explain that criminals are not deterred by the lethal injection or by the electric chair because both are swift and painless. Say that again please?

But things would be different if criminals were executed by hanging, stoning, crucifixion, quartering, and other painful methods.

Well, for criminals who sport lesser hair on their heads, a Frenchman once invented a cure-all for baldness. It's called the Guillotine.

It has been so popular since that other than engaging in endless debates on the matter, some people have lost their heads over it as well.

(Image from http://www.conservapedia.com/)

TELEVISED EXECUTIONS, ANYONE?

Drug traffickers play dirty. Today's news was very disturbing and I wondered, how many similar tragedies such as this one happened but were never reported? A young daughter of a high-ranking government anti-narcotics officer was abducted, drugged and raped. She's only a minor. Crimes like these must never go unpunished, and what better way but to prime the intelligence network of the government agencies against drug pushers and drug traffickers and help track down and snatch the guilty parties and throw them in jail. Drug trafficking is a heinous crime punishable by death, considering the countless lives that have been destroyed and wasted through the years.

In carrying out the punishment for these criminals, there seems to be a general acceptance to show on television the execution of such either by electric chair or lethal injection. Televised executions could very well be a deterrent to heinous crimes and to the growing tide of criminality in the country.

Some 400 convicts have been confined at death row, and no execution has yet been carried out because every death sentence is subject to review by the Supreme Court. In the past, executions of criminals were made in public. As if to stress the role of executions as a deterrent to crime, cruelty was allowed in ending the criminal's life. In some Islamic countries in the Middle East, public executions are still made and this could explain why criminality seems relatively lower in Islamic nations. Punishments like cutting of limbs for lesser crimes are carried out in public for all to see.

The Roman rhetorician Quintillian wrote that when criminals were to be executed, the place of choice was where there would be the most number of spectators so that fear of punishment would work upon them. During the same period, Seneca, the Roman philosopher argued that "the more public the punishments are, the greater the effect they will produce upon the reformation of orders."

In our modern world, television will carry the anti-crime message of public executions to millions more than those in ancient times.

Criminals too should be entitled to their '15 minutes of fame' before a nationwide audience. That should be something to die for.

But seriously, the guilty parties must be caught and severely punished.

(Image from http://news.bbc.co.uk/)