From the History of Punishment

For the most history punishment has been both painful and public in order to act as deterrent to others. Physical punishments and public humiliations were social events and carried out in most accessible parts of towns, often on market days when the greater part of the population were present. Justice had to be seen to be done.

One of the most bizarre methods of execution was inflicted in ancient Rome on people found guilty of murdering their fathers. Their punishment was to be put in a sack with a rooster, a viper, and a dog, then drowned along with three animals. In ancient Greece the custom of allowing a condemned man to end his own life by poison was extended only to full citizens. The philosopher Socrates died in this way. Condemned slaves were beaten to death instead. Stoning was the ancient method of punishment for adultery among other crimes.

In Turkey if a butcher was found guilty of selling bad meat, he was tied to a post with a piece of stinking meat fixed under his nose, or a baker having sold short weight bread could be nailed to his door by his ear.

One of the most common punishments for petty offences was the pillory, which stood in the main square of towns. The offender was locked by hands and head into the device and made to stand sometimes for days, while crowds jeered and pelted the offender with rotten vegetables or worse.

In medieval Europe some methods of execution were deliberately drawn out to inflict maximum suffering. Felons were tired to a heavy wheel and rolled around the streets until they were crushed to death. Others were strangled, very slowly. One of the most terrible punishments was hanging and quartering. The victim was hanged, beheaded and the body cit into four pieces. It remained a legal method of punishment in Britain until 1814. Beheading was normally reserved for those of high rank. In England a bock and axe was the common method but this was different from France and Germany where the victim kneeled and the head was taken off with a swing of the sword.

Death Penalty

The death penalty is the subject of wide speculation. Many writers have paid attention to such a theme. For example, in Dostoyevsky's book Crime and Punishment the theory of Raskolnikov allows one to murder people. Is it right to kill a person, even a terrible and unpleasant, one to make others happy? Is it right to decide another's fate in place of God? This question has been always discussed. I don't support murders. Nevertheless, it's just my point of view and judging from it, I believe that criminals must be punished.

Crimes are committed every day. They can be minor or very serious, even monstrous. Imagine a maniac, for example, a sex fiend, who is guilty of having murdered several tens of victims. He is usually sent to a prison or to a mental hospital to spend some years there. It happens in many countries. A maniac "vindicates" himself in a jail or in a clinic, spends several years, and then gets freedom. I don't think that some years in a mental hospital or in prison can correct the condition of a maniac. When he is free, he will kill or hurt people again. Being cruel and ruthless, he wills his own way through his crowd of victims.

Sometimes criminals are sentenced to life imprisonment. It's not enough for a person who tortured tens of bodies by cutting off their extremities or putting out somebody's eyes, for example. Of course, many people think that the death sentence is not the best way of punishing criminals. They say that execution is the same as “an eye for an eye”; that if s a sin to kill any man. However, they forget how many innocent victims the maniac has butchered.

I think that only people who committed grave or serious crimes with perversions must be executed. The others should remain alive. I object that they are sentenced to be killed by firing squad, by hanging, by using the guillotine or the gas chamber.

I think that the most acceptable way of executing is electrocution or using fast acting poison. No doubt, to discuss the methods of putting someone to death is awful. Some people think that it’s easier to discuss the problem instead of solving it. I don't think so. I vote for the use of the death penalty, but not for teenagers and women. Maybe I think so because of the recent events of acts of terrorism, when we saw so many innocent people die.