Capital Punishment - Jeremy Irons

       In the following video, the actor Jeremy Irons sustains that there are several reasons to be against the death penalty. The first reason that he provides is related to societies that use the death penalty do not have lower crime rates than those that do. When a country abolishes the death penalty, it is not jumped into criminal chaos. The second reason that Irons mentions is that this kind of punishment targets the economically disadvantaged. It refers to people who cannot afford good legal counsel, and without a voice in society, for instance, a saying in the U.S "capital punishment means that those without the capital get the punishment." Statistics show this is true but would it be acceptable if people from all sections of society were executed? Does killing a rich man make killing a poor man right?. The third motive that he refers to is the fact that the death penalty is irreversible and results in the death of innocents. When someone is dead, a retrospective pardon is of little use to them or their family. Since 1990, in China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the USA, there have been 51 recorded executions of child offenders. Some as young as 14 years old. But even if no more innocents or children are killed should we tolerate the death penalty?. The last but not least reason is linked with human rights. It abuses two of our most basic human rights: everyone has the right to live, and no one should be subject to torture. The death penalty obviously kills people but it also tortures, physically by the brutal nature of execution and psychologically by forcing individuals to wait to be killed. They wait, sometimes for decades while others are led to their deaths. All in all, these are the justifications that the actor provides to leave clear that this kind of punishment should be abolished.