1000+ Group Discussion Topics for MBA Placements

In favour of abolition:

The reason why capital punishment should be abolished is based on the fact that sometimes judgments go wrong and, consequently, innocent people are hanged. This is because of the legalistic juggling of clever lawyers.

The only way to preclude the possibility of error is to abolish capital punishment itself. “Benefit of Doubt” is an important point of law and rightly so because law holds that 99 guilty can go unpunished but even one innocent should not be punished. In the same spirit our Supreme Court has held that death penalty should be awarded only in rarest of the rare cases.

Man is supposed to be a rational animal. But can a rational being kill a man for a man? No. Because it would be savage and barbarous. Besides, by killing a murderer the dead cannot be brought back to life, nor would he or his family be compensated. So, instead, we should reform the killer, make him realise his sin and follow a virtuous life.

If we kill the murdered, his troubles are over. But his family is made to suffer for no fault of theirs. We should instead give him some other punishment, say, for example, life imprisonment so that he has to face his own conscience and repent for what he has done.

Alongside, he should be given psychological treatment and an opportunity to lead a normal citizen’s life.

Instances are many where instead of being given capital punishment to even hardened criminals, they were just imprisoned or put in a reformatory with the result that they realised and regretted their wrong doings, their terms of sentences were reduced as a reward.

Such acts enabled them to serve their innocent families and they even turned towards social work. This shows that capital punishment is not the only remedy to take care of criminals.

Against abolition:

If a murder is not put to death but instead allowed to live on, he is tempted to repeat the crime in future. It often happens that murderers set at large through police connivance or legal trickery of lawyers indulge in more heinous crimes for fun or contact killing until they are caught and killed.

In some Muslim countries like Pakistan, Iran, Dubai etc. where laws are rigid and even petty criminals are awarded harsh punishments, crime is rare.

Punishment must be proportional to the crime. One, who takes a life, should pay for it with his own life. That alone can have a deterrent effect on the criminals. It is both ethically and practically wrong to show any leniency to hard boiled criminals.

A murderer not only kills a human being but also makes the life of his victim’s dependants miserable, because in most such cases their bread winner is snatched from them and in some extreme cases they might go after the blood of the murderer and might kill him. Therefore, it is advisable that a murderer is put to death by the arm of the law itself.

The time is not yet ripe to abolish capital punishment. There is no let up in crime Capital punishment is an effective deterrent for would be offenders and murderers. Those who argue that despite capital punishment being there on the statute book crime is on the increase fail to understand that it is because of our faulty justice delivery system where justice delayed is justice denied, and not the other way round.

There are certain kinds of hardened criminals who are beyond reform. It is futile to teach them sanity.

Killing others has become their second nature and they have dozens of murder cases pending against them. It would only be for the good of society that they are sent to the gallows and thus their career in crime is stopped.