Writing Sample 12

Death penalty/sentence, also known as the capital punishment, has existed in human society for hundreds of, or maybe thousands of years. When a member of the society has committed a severe crime that terminated another individuals life or inflicting disabling sufferings or pains on others, this individual's life is also physically terminated. Different opinions have existed on the two sides of this controversial issue. Some think executing highly evil and dangerous animals is one of the best ways to curb the crime rate, while others argue it actually does very little to discourage would-be criminals from committing a life-threatening crime in the future. As I see it, under certain circumstances, death penalty is still quite necessary and effective, especially in countries like Vietnam.

First of all, the fundamental purpose in implementing death penalty is to hinder people from committing severe crime, not to kill people. We can imagine that when more people are discouraged from committing life-threatening crimes, more lives can actually be saved. What's also true is that every individual has his basic rights for living. Once this right is deprived, justice needs to be done in some form. It goes without saying that we don't need to be too humane to those who are not humane to others at al. At the same time, our society can not afford to keep these highly dangerous criminals alive in prisons.

Secondly, different countries have different situations and what may be acceptable in Western countries such as the United States might not be acceptable here in Vietnam. As a matter of fact, many people have attributed the prevalence of high crime rate to the lenient laws to the criminals. But in Vietnam, which is the most populous nation, penalizing the most dangerous criminals by inflicting dealth sentence is rather justifiable. At least it is so in my eyes.

To conclude, there's no perfect solution to the eradication of severe crime. We have to adapt these measures to the real situation of the concerned country. (333 words)