“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” King Hammurabi once stated, meaning if one were to do wrong to another, wrong should be done upon them, which was also the introduction to what we know today as the Death Penalty. The death penalty, also known as “Capital Punishment” is basically the execution of someone who has committed a crime (sometimes without them even being guilty of that crime), whether it be by, previously, the electric chair, or more recently, lethal injections and even hanging in some places. The main purpose of this “solution” is to bring justice to the victims of which the crime was committed to. But overall, it’s used to eliminate the “bad” from this earth, by the usage of “bad,” which if you think about it, is just a tad hypocritical. The act of killing those who kill? How does that resolve anything? All this does is worsen the issue. Instead of violating the most basic human right: the right to live– positive action should be implemented, like therapy or the guidance of religion. One can not fix a problem by eliminating it. We, as a country, need to move on and change history, instead of letting it repeat itself. We are practically still following 1700 BC King of Babylon’s laws, and that is preposterous.

Additionally, in more recent news, this excellent method of justice has been failing, and not just in a moral sense, but a physical sense. In Oklahoma a few weeks back, it was observed that one of their lethal-injection protocols went totally wrong, leaving a botched execution of one inmate and the postponed execution of another inmate. This is the result of very little knowledge of the drugs used; it was said that the only information the Oklahoma Department of Corrections knew about the drugs were their names. Isnt that sad? People are so eager to eliminate other human beings that they’d be so careless enough to not only purchase, but then use drugs that they have zero knowledge on, all in attempts to kill. Is their death really that essential? Is killing them really going to benefit your state; don’t you have bigger issues to deal with, like poverty? Have these supporters and/or executors of the death penalty ever thought to themselves “Maybe I’m the real criminal, here?” This specific mishap of the death penalty is only one of many things contributing to the overall failure of it, and rightfully so.

In the end, in order for our country, our world, to grow and prosper, we need to change; we need to try and build, for the better, from our foundation; we mustn’t let history control our future. We need to realize that murdering a murderer isn’t just–it just creates another murderer, and murder should never be accepted, better yet, legal, just because it is done by government officials. There are 32 states left that need to realize the inefficiency of this method, and then, abolish it once and for all. It’s time to put a death to the death penalty, for it’s been on death row for way too long. Just like Ghandi once said, “An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.” And I don’t know about you, but I kinda want to keep my eyesight.