Statistics New Zealand shows recorded homicide is 99 in year 2000. The figure had increased to 134 in year 2009 which had jumped a 35%. Among these recorded homicide crimes, there were 56 murders (killing someone deliberately) in 2000, but 73 murders in 2009. Another webpage Sensible Sentencing Trust has also analysed crimes in New Zealand. It is found that homicide had increased 4000% in the last 50 years. Violent crime had increased 108% during year 1990 to 2000 and a further 7% increase during 1999 to 2005. The figure would looks worse when it comes to year 2010. It is also found that 83% of male and 75% of female prisoners are re-offenders. I wonder what you get from those statistics. Do you think part of our correction system is failed? What should our government do to improve our legal and correction system? Is re-introducing Capital Punishment a bright way to go? This blog will explore and analyse the reasons why debaters oppose or agree with the re-introduction of death penalty.


Do you feel shocked and disgusted when knowing that a child had been put into a cloth drier, hung on a cloth line and died after all sorts of abuses? How would you feel when hearing that a girl had been
stabbed more than a hundred times to death? Have you ever wondered why some grievous crime offenders or even re-offenders are still living happily in prison and spending tax-payers’ money? Do you know that each of them costs taxpayers $90,000 a year? Society claims that New Zealand sentencing is not harsh enough to give warning to people. To those grievous crime offenders and re-offenders, life sentence doesn’t do any harm to them. They are still entitled to apply for parole after a few years. They still entitle to their human right, even though they didn’t treat other people as human. Why don’t give them what they really deserve, which they gave to other innocent creatures, “Death”?


A few points had been well argued to agree with re-introduction of death penalty in New Zealand. First of all, murders especially those cases involve violent or serial murders simply deserve death penalty. They should taste the fear of death just as the victims had been experienced. They need to know the serious consequences of their behaviours in order to make them regret for what they have committed. Second, families of victims have to endure the profound impact of losing their beloved ones. Their hearts are broken again and again during the process of revealing the crime details. Sentence those murders to death penalty would be the only consolation. Last but not least, everyone else should be warned by capital punishment. We have such a high re-offend rate. People are even worrying if we should send criminals to prisons since reports show that our prisons actually produce re-offenders. Therefore, our legal system should have the right penalties for certain level of crime, in order to give warnings to those re-offenders.


On the other hand, there are a few defects of death penalty are well argued by the opposers. The first key debate is that what if an erroneous judgment occurs, such as: execute someone who is later on found not guilty. People do hear such cases happen in some countries. Another issue is that suspects’ economic status may well affect the judgement. Rich people who can get good lawyers may escape from being sentenced to capital punishment. However, in similar cases poor people who can not afford good lawyers would have more chance of being sentenced to death penalty. Furthermore, race of the suspects may also determine the result. Studies of capital punishment in America show that in similar cases black people has more chance of receiving death sentences than white people. New Zealand as an immigration country has multi ethnic groups. Therefore, people worry that if death penalty is re-introduced in New Zealand, it would also be hard to maintain hundred percent justice to different ethnic groups all the time. As a result, compare to Pakeha, Maoris will be more likely to be sentenced guilty and get capital punishment.


People would also argue that cost of fulfilling capital punishment is higher than just keeping the criminals in prisons. Studies of capital punishment in different prefectures of America show that death penalty is costly and the effectiveness is debateable. Moreover, people also would argue that the execution is torturous to the criminals not only physically but also psychologically. However, people who agree with death penalty debate that if we want to reduce the crime rate, we need to stop treating the criminals as if they are victims.

In my opinion, I agree with re-introduce death penalty to New Zealand. However, I still believe that our legal system won’t be improved too much if only introduce capital punishment. We shouldn’t push the crimes to the dead end then believe that capital punishment is the only solution. If our legal system needs to be harsher, then we should start to change from the bottom level. A good example is Singapore legal system. Singapore has a very strict legal system, which prevent the crimes from the early stage. For example: drunk drivers could be sentenced in jail for 10 years. Where as in New Zealand you could get drunk and drive for many times and only get fined or driver licence gets revoked. Further more, our correction system also need to be changed. We shouldn’t simply stop sending people to prison only because our prisons produce re-offenders. Instead, we should learn from our mistakes and refer to other countries’ good working legal and correction systems.

Reference:

Death Penalty Information Centre. (2010). Innocence and the Death Penalty. Retrieved 28 Aug 2010 from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-penalty

Mccrone. J. (2010). Filling the Prisons. Retrieved 07 Sep 2010 from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4024049/Filling-the-prisons

New Zealand Government. (2009). National Annual Recorded Offences for the Latest Calendar Years. Retrieved 11 Sep 2010 from http://www.stats.govt.nz/

Orient Expat Singapore. (2010). Singapore Laws. Retrieved 11 Sep 2010 from http://www.orientexpat.com/singapore/laws

Sensible Sentencing Trust. (2010). New Zealand Crime Statistics. Retrieved 30 Aug 2010 from http://www.safe-nz.org.nz/statistics.htm