Posts published in “South Korea”

By Hazuki Kajiume

Is the death penalty a just punishment? The answer to this question is divided. However, the death penalty has more demerits than merits. The following is a discussion of the problems of capital punishment.
The first problem is that the death penalty can cause irreparable human rights violations by misjudgment. Since criminal trials are conducted by human beings, it is impossible to eliminate the possibility of misjudgment. The death penalty is life threatening and should never be executed by misjudgment. According to public opinion polls by the Ministry of Justice in Japan (2020), the most common reason for demanding the abolition was the opinion that “if there is a mistake in the trial, it cannot be withdrawn.” Therefore, the death penalty is irreversible once it is executed, so the death penalty should be abolished as there is a possibility of misjudgment in the trial.
The Second is that the existence of the death penalty affects treaties with other countries. According to Amnesty International, 142 of the world’s 198 countries have abolished the death penalty in law and practice, 56 have retained the death penalty. Of these only 20 countries, including Japan, carry out executions. Of the 36 OECD member countries, only the United States and Japan carried out executions in 2019, but the number of states that abolished or suspended executions in the Unites States is increasing year by year. Abolishment of the death penalty is now an international trend. According to the same article, the existence of the death penalty is an obstacle to concluding treaties with countries that have abolished the death penalty. In fact, Japan has concluded extradition treaties only in two countries, the United States and South Korea, where the death penalty exists. Since few countries maintain the death penalty, succession to the death penalty affects exchanges with other countries.
The Final problem is that the death penalty is killing people. The death penalty allows the law to take the live of a person, which is an inhumane and grave violation of human rights. All people have the right to live. This right to live is the fundamental and most important right of human beings and should never be taken away. Also, this right is specified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which stipulates the prohibition of torture and cruel punishment by public officials, but the death penalty violates this clause. The Supreme Court ruling in 1948 ruled that the death penalty was not a cruel punishment, but now that times are changing and the death penalty must be reviewed again, because the way of thinking and social trends are different between the times when there was war and today. Therefore, even a nation cannot be allowed to kill people.
As mentioned above, the death penalty has many bad aspects. From the perspective of public opinion, the world, and the Constitution, the death penalty is not very good. It is necessary to reconsider whether capital punishment is indispensable.