Death Penalty in Namibia Essay Sample
Namibia is deemed is deemed to be a state of a low offense rate. particularly to the likes of the USA. Mexico or even our neighbors South Africa. However. it is apparent that there is a gradual addition in offense ; homicides and colzas are widely reported accross the state and the Namibian state is concerned. Some have even called for the reinstatent of the decease punishment in Namibia. It is of import to set up the significance of decease punishment and what it entails. Harmonizing to the Oxford Dictionary. decease punishment is the lawfully authorised violent death of person as penalty for a offense. So it is a sentence made by the tribunal which allows the State to put to death a guilty party. However. merely certain offenses would amount to the guilty party being executed. These offenses may be first degree slaying. terrorist act or even lese majesty. Application of the decease punishment to offenses such as fraud and larceny would evidently be excessively utmost.
A famouse illustration of a decease punishment sentence is that of former Iraqi President Sadam Hussein. Sadam Hussein was sentenced to decease by hanging. after being found guilty and convicted of offenses against humanity in December 2006. The decease punishment is a subjectively sensitive issue. Whether or non to re-introduce the decease punishment in Namibia remains a immense argument among its citizens. This essay will discourse the decease punishment on its history in Namibia ; its debut and abolishment. The advantages and disadvantages of the decease punishment will besides be laid down. and a concluding decision will be reached on whether the decease punishment can be applied to discourage offense in Namibia.
The History of Capital Punishment in Namibia
In Namibia. the decease punishment was originally introduced in 1858. by Jonker Afrikaner and 19 other heads at a peace conference. This conference resulted in the Treaty of Hoachanas that prescribed the processs applicable to a slaying test and the executing of the decease sentence. The decease sentence as a signifier of penalty in Namibia was maintained by consecutive colonial powers until it was officially abolished in 1990. the twelvemonth before Namibia’s independency. The last executing to take topographic point in Namibia was in May 1988. when Sagarias Ariseb was hanged for the slaying of the estate where he was working.
Namibian Law versus the Death Punishment
The right to life is provided for by the Namibian Constitution in Chapter 3: Cardinal Human Rights and Freedoms. Article 6: The right to life shall be respected and protected. No jurisprudence may order decease as a competent sentence. No Court or Tribunal shall hold the power to enforce a sentence of decease upon any individual. No executings shall take topographic point in Namibia. Article 131 stipulates that Article 6 is entranched in the Constitution and hence can non be repealed or ammended. Namibia has besides signed international and Continental pacts which protect human life. An illustration is the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Article 4.
Advantages of the Death Punishment
“If we execute liquidators and there is in fact no hindrance consequence. we have killed a clump of liquidators. If we fail to put to death liquidators. and making so would in fact have deterred other slayings. we have allowed the violent death of a clump of guiltless victims. I would much instead put on the line the former. This. to me. is non a tough call. ” John McAdams – Marquette University/Department of Political Science. on disincentive. To assistance with determining that the decease punishment is a good offense disincentive system. the undermentioned advantages are laid down ; The Death Penalty is cost-efficient: The cost of incarcerating a condemnable. functioning a life term or otherwise long term. is really expensive when compared with the costs involved in executing of the same individual. Capital penalty is. hence. considered to be cost-efficient. Peace for victim’s household: The decease punishment gives closing to the victim’s households who have suffered so much. Some household members of offense victims may take old ages or decennaries to retrieve from the daze and loss of a loved 1. Some may ne’er retrieve.
One of the things that helps rush this recovery is to accomplish some sort of closing. Life in prison merely means the felon is still around to stalk the victim. A decease sentence brings conclusiveness to a atrocious chapter in the lives of these household members. Death punishment moving as a detterent: It is argued that the execition of person can be seen as an illustration to the possible felons. The cognition that the jurisprudence will non protect their lives after perpetrating a offense deters them perpetrating offenses and therefore offense is reduced. No over-crowded prisons: It is a common job particularly in Namibia ; overcrowded cells. Execution of some felons will nevertheless forestall this job. Criminal no longer a menace: Imprisonment keeps the possibility of a hard-boiled felon coming out on word and going a menace to civil society. a possibility which is put to rest by executing. There have been many cases of captives. out on word. indulging in condemnable behaviour taking advantage of their conditional release. A great exmple is that of Dawud Majid Mu’Min. Dawud M. Mu’min was functioning a 48 twelvemonth prison sentence for a 1973 slaying strong belief of a cab driver in Grayson County. Virginia. He was assigned to a day-to-day work crew and he escaped merely to kill a shop proprietor. Mu’Min was arrested and convicted of capital slaying. He was so executed. doing certain he could no longer perpetrate offense.
Disadvantages of Death Punishment
“I am non positive that capital penalty. in and of itself. is a hindrance to offense because most people do non believe about the decease punishment before they commit a violent or capital offense. ” -Willie L. Williams. Police Chief. Los Angeles. CA
Everything has is its ain downsides. including the decease punishment. A discusion of the disadvantages of the decease punishment will light on why a batch of states in the universe. including Namibia. hold fallen out of favor with the decease punishment. Falsely accused and mentally sick people might be put to decease: Wronful strong beliefs are inevitable. They do go on. Peoples may besides acquire arrested due to the public force per unit area exertedonto the constabulary. This was apparent in the Magdalena Stoffels instance in which Junias Fillipus was wrongfully of ravishing and killing Magdalena. So wrongfully convicted guiltless individuals are at hazard of being executed excessively. Mentally sick patients may be put to decease. Many people are merely born with defects to their encephalon that cause them to move a certain manner.
No sum of drugs. schooling. rehabilitation. or positive support will alter them. Is it fair that person should be murdered merely because they were luckless plenty to be born with a encephalon defect. Although it is technically unconstitutional to set a mentally sick patient to decease. the regulations can be obscure. and you still necessitate to be able to convert a justice and jury that the suspect is in fact. mentally sick. Morality: The application of the decease punishment raises the inquiry of morality. Is right to move on the impression of “An oculus for an eye” ? The application of the decease punishment is seen to be immoral because it merely promotes retaliation in society.
