The death penalty, also known as Capital Punishment is the most egregious and very controversial punishment, that’s why I chose to talk about it in my report. Capital punishment is only sentenced to crimes of the worst sort, such as murders, terrorists, and maybe rapists. Capital punishment has engendered ubiquitous arguments debating whether it's advantageous or erroneous whilst exploring both its morality and criminal behavior. The death penalty's primary aim is to reduce the number of heinous crimes. Some argue it’s an anomaly to human rights and others might assert that it decreases extreme criminal behavior.
National Perspective
For a variety of offenses, Egyptian law mandates the death penalty. These include crimes against state security committed abroad as well as some crimes against state security committed within the country. Capital punishment is sentenced to crimes of the worst sort such as premeditated murder, intentional homicide with poison, homicide in the commission of a crime or misdemeanor, arson resulting in death, abduction of a female by fraud or force linked to rape, killing a person injured in a war, endangering means of transportation if this results in human death, bullying correlated with premeditated murder and perjury that has resulted in a person's execution [1]. At the turn of the century, 111 countries had abolished the death penalty in statute or practice, accounting for more than half of the world's countries [2]. Just 53 countries still have and use the death penalty, despite the fact that the number of countries that currently execute prisoners is much lower. While the use of the death penalty is decreasing worldwide, Over the last decade, its usage in Egypt has increased.
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Professor William Anthony Schabas is a Canadian scholar who specializes in international criminal and human rights law. According to his research, “Islamic states like Egypt interpret capital punishment according to the Quran's principles.” [3]. Egypt’s perspective on the death penalty is based on belief and religion. On the other hand, not all crimes are dealt with according to religious traditions. For example, a very old Islamic punishment against thieves or anyone who steals others' belongings was that they should have their hands cut off. But of course, in modern times this punishment was abolished as it was deemed too harsh. Egypt also believes that the death penalty has the potential to discourage violent crime. Egyptian criminologists such as Ahmed Okasha, assert that the human brain fully develops at the age of 25. The frontal cortex is the last thing to mature, it makes a person fully understand the consequence of an action they’re trying to pursue, as a result, capital punishment serves as an irreversible deterrent, ensuring that the killer will never have another opportunity to take a life. It is a form of incapacitation that aids in the protection of society by avoiding potential crime. [4]. Also, the death penalty in Egypt is not carried out with brutality; rather, it is aimed at ending life as easily and peacefully as possible.
Another example of why Egypt believes in the effectiveness of the death penalty is because Egypt has been opposing some of the world’s most dangerous and treacherous terrorists for many years. Egypt believes that condemning terrorists to live in prison is ineffective as they can still communicate easily due to jail guard corruption, sneaking in phones, and having visited. There are also many cases around the world where terrorists or dangerous and high-profile criminals have successfully escaped maximum security prisons. The risk of an escape and potential victims are eliminated with capital punishment. With these terrorists dead Egypt is eliminating any possible future danger to the country. This will definitely decrease the extreme crime rate proving the effectiveness of the death penalty.
In upper Egypt, families are very large and can’t be controlled by the government. There are lots of vendettas between the families in Upper Egypt which cause many deaths and the loss of many family members, even innocent ones. When the death penalty is one of the legal punishments for someone's actions, it protects the victim's family from any kind of victimization. [5]. This proves the convenience of the death penalty for victimized families and innocent family members stuck in between large family feuds and vendettas.
Egypt’s use of capital punishment between 25 January 2011 and 23 September 2020:
Global Perspective
In fourteen nations around the world, capital punishment is still legal and in use. Below are the fourteen nations that have legalized and held the ability to kill criminals: [6]
- Bangladesh
- China
- Egypt
- Ethiopia
- India
- Indonesia
- Iran
- Japan
- Nigeria
- Saudi Arabia
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- The United States
Capital Punishment in China Study
We'll start with China's viewpoint on the death penalty. When it comes to capital punishment, the Chinese government is peculiar. Unlike the United States, where death penalty trials are made public and execution dates are released, China has a provision that all executions must be kept secret and confidential. They're kept a secret, and sometimes the relatives won't find out until it's too late.
In addition, China also uses firing squads to carry out the death penalty. Many of the inmates on China's version of Death Row are shot in the head with bullets. This approach is relatively uncommon and it is considered extremely immoral. You may argue that punishing offenders for their mistakes by taking their lives is immoral enough in itself, but being fired in the head point blank brings the breach of ethical practices to a new level. Death by lethal injection is the only other permissible method of execution available to Chinese authorities. [7]. Although there is no data on how the death penalty impacts violence in China, federal statistics indicate that the number of felony prosecutions reported decreased from 2015 to 2018. Experts, such as Borge Bakken, who studies crime in China at the Australian National University, are skeptical of official statistics. Bakken said the crime figures were rumors and misinformation in a BBC interview from January 2019 [8].
Capital Punishment in Russia Study
On the 18th of December 2007, Russia voted in favor of a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly, along with 103 other countries, calling for a prohibition on the use of the death penalty before it is abolished. The last time the death penalty was used in Russia was in 1996, almost two decades ago. According to some sources, serial killer Sergey Golovkin, who was accused of raping and killing more than 30 boys and was executed by the firing squad in August of that year, may have been the most recent person to be executed [9]. Following the expiration of the moratorium in 2009, Russia voted to keep the death penalty outlawed, and the Constitutional Court made it illegal for courts to sentence citizens to death. “Returning to death sentences would be incompatible with humanitarian principles,” said Vadim Vinogradov, a law specialist at the All-Russian State University of Justice [10].
According to available evidence, the majority of Russians favor the death penalty. Since the late 1980s, when Glasnost was pronounced the guiding ideology of modern post-Soviet Russia, a number of polling firms have been permitted to conduct polls on public opinion on the death penalty.
Russian Centre of Public Opinion Research (VCIOM) Data
- The VCIOM published the first-ever research and surveys on capital punishment in Russia in 1989. It revealed that 62 percent of all Russians believed the death penalty should be maintained and expanded beyond the existing capital offenses. Five years later, in 1994, 65 percent of respondents in a representative poll of Russians accepted that the death penalty should be used, although only 5 percent believed that capital punishment should be discontinued immediately.
- According to a VCIOM report, public support for the death penalty in Russia rose in 2000. According to VCIOM statistics, 73 percent of all respondents supported capital punishment. Death penalty backers were more prevalent in those above the age of 45 and those with less than a college diploma. VCIOM registered a surge in public support for capital punishment in Russia in 2001. According to their research, in 2001, 79 percent of all Russians concluded that any heinous crimes in Russia should be punishable by death.
- A VCIOM research conducted in 2002 revealed increased public approval for the death penalty in Russia. According to the findings of this report, 82% of all respondents believed that the death penalty should be reinstated. [11].
Russian Foundation of Public Opinion (FOM) Data
- According to a FOM survey conducted in 1997, 70% of all Russians also believed that the death penalty should be used. The analysis also discovered that 55 percent of all Russians felt the death penalty moratorium declared in 1996 was a mistake, and 63 percent of all Russians advocated for the immediate reinstatement of capital punishment.
- The results of the FOM poll, which was also published in 2001, corroborate these findings, with 63 percent believing that the ban on the death penalty should be lifted.
- According to FOM data from 2006, 74% of all respondents believe the death penalty is an effective measure of social discipline and deterrence [12].
Russian Public Opinion Research Group (ROMIR) Data
- In a 2006 poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Group (ROMIR), 57.9 percent of all respondents supported repealing the ban on the death penalty in Russia. According to the most recent studies conducted by leading research institutions, public support for the death penalty in Russia remains high [13].
Levada Data
- Finally, according to a 2007 Levada poll, only 17% of all Russians think the death penalty is socially immoral. This figure is even higher among Internet users, who are mostly younger and more educated than the general public.
- Despite significant adjustments in the former Soviet Union's political and economic structures, public support for the death penalty remains high and constant [14].
Conclusion - Personal Perspective
In my point of view, I think that Capital punishment is effective as it acts as a deterrent for a capital crime, especially in countries with high crime rates. The death penalty influences extreme criminal behavior by decreasing atrocious crimes. In Russia, the death penalty has been abolished for almost 25 years, whilst in Egypt, the death penalty has always been upheld as a legal punishment against capital crime as its influenced by their religion and beliefs.
Since capital punishment had been abolished in Russia, crime rates started increasing, especially in 2006. Study shows that in 2006 there had been 2700 crime recordings, 20 of them being murders per 100,000 people [15]. Currently, in Russia, there are 15 murderers and 3.4 rapists per 100,000 people, whilst in Egypt, there are 0.8 murders and 0.1 rapists per 100,000 people [16]. I think the main factor for capital punishment influencing capital crime rate is deterrence most widely stated reason for the death penalty is deterrence. The idea is that the possibility of being killed in the future will deter a large number of individuals from committing a heinous offense that they would otherwise commit.
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