IndexIntroductionDefinition of death penaltyCommon death penalty methodsHistory of the death penalty in South AfricaStatistics on rape and murder crimes in South Africa and other countriesThe case of Karabo MokoenaConclusionIntroductionThere is no avoiding the attention currently fixed on crime in South Africa. The amount of vicious crimes has sparked interest, both ordinary and famous members in South African communities face brutal crimes and violent deaths. The news is filled with reports of rape and murder, so the public is calling for the reinstatement of capital punishment (Solomon, 2015). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay According to Amnesty International (2016) and Webb, Christodoulou and Rogers (2018) the death penalty is still practiced in 52 countries, the methods of Punishments consist of lethal injection, hanging, beheading, electrocution and in shooting. In 2017, Amnesty International revealed that 993 executions were carried out in 23 different countries, a decrease compared to other recent years (1,634 executions in 2015 and 1,032 in 2016). This essay aims to discuss the arguments in favor of the death penalty as an appropriate sentencing and punishment option in South Africa for serious crimes. Key definitions will be defined and a brief history of the death penalty in South Africa will be provided. Definition of Death Penalty The death penalty, also called capital punishment or death sentence, is a state-sanctioned exercise under which a convicted individual is executed as punishment. by the government for the crimes of which they were tried and found guilty. Only serious crimes are punishable by death; however, each country has its own law and the law is practiced according to the constitution of the country in question. Commonly, serious crimes punishable by death include murder, rape, aggravated assault, terrorism, drug trafficking, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against the country. Common death penalty methodsHangingGorvett (2018) reveals that to this day beheading is still a norm, especially in Saudi Arabia, where a total of 146 offenders were executed in this way in 2017. In any case, by far the dominant method of execution today is hanging. There are two different ways to do this: the "long drop" and the "short drop". The short fall involves the offender being submerged from a low height, resulting in death by asphyxiation. This is commonly seen as the more unpleasant of the two. Even if the “long fall” is believed to be the humane option, things could go wrong. Ideally, the rope will break the axle bone on the offender's neck, the axle bone is the second bone that separates the head from the spinal cord, causing their blood pressure to drop to zero in less than a second , at this point the victim is unconscious, however it may take up to 15 minutes for cardiac arrest. Shooting The method is often associated with war crimes, usually carried out by five anonymous executioners generally being trained police officers. The executioners position themselves behind a dark curtain or a brick wall (usually has holes for weapons to enter), the officers stand about 7 meters away from the inmate and shoot, but one of their guns would be loaded with blanks so that no one notices. who fired the fatal shot.Electric chairThe electric chair was created as an alternative to hanging. Just like lethal injection, the electric chair is considered scientific and more humane. The process involves tying the condemned person to a chair specially made for this procedureand then to electrocute him through electrodes attached to his head and legs. Lethal Injection Lethal injection is the preferred death penalty technique used in China, the United States, Thailand, Guatemala, and Vietnam. The infusion is injected into the prisoner's body which puts him to sleep before subjecting him to euthanasia. The United States has determined that this method is the most accommodating approach to carrying out capital punishment. Be that as it may, it has problems. There have been several cases where the injection did not have the ideal result and the inmates endured pain and suffering before dying. History of the death penalty in South Africa In June 1995, the Constitutional Court adopted a significant resolution abolishing the death penalty in South Africa. The court agreed that the death penalty under the Criminal Procedure Act was contrary to South Africa's new constitution adopted in 1994. However, the ruling excluded treason committed during the war period. The Court also quickly ruled that the state and all its facilities are prohibited from executing those on death row. The decision follows the Constitutional Court hearing on capital punishment held in February 1995. Until the deferment of the application of capital punishment in February 1990, South Africa had perhaps the highest number of executions in the world. There are few authentic investigations into death penalty in South Africa. Our understanding of the inner workings of the politically sanctioned period of racial segregation, commonly known as apartheid-era penitentiaries or government organization of judicial executions, is hardly considered part of the importance of apartheid. The inadequate array of literature on the death penalty in South Africa often tends to cling to specific topics, which include issues of race and the death penalty, as well as the mental impacts of the death penalty. Madeleine Fullard and Robert Turrell are the only historians who have studied the death penalty in South Africa. A broad emphasis in the literature on the death penalty in South Africa, including the TRC formally known as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has called executions for political crimes a grave violation of human rights, it is worrying that somehow with a speech on human rights and the cruelty of the death penalty. Rape and murder crime statistics in South Africa and other countries According to McCafferty (2003) rape used to be a crime punishable by death, but trends are progressively difficult to distinguish as rape is no longer individually classified. Since 2007 this has been classified together with other "sexual crimes", the frequency of which has since decreased. However, after increasing for a couple of years, sexual crimes against children and women reported to police have declined since 2010, although it is too early to say whether this is a fixed decreasing pattern. Police homicide data reveals that in South Africa the homicide rate has fallen from 67 per 100,000 in l994/1995 to 33 in 2014/2015. Additionally, the average number of homicides committed each day also decreased from 71 to 49. However, numerous organizations have questioned the downward pattern of homicide rates. Furthermore, Interpol has proposed that the murder rate is significantly higher, considering that not all crimes are reported to the police, using information on unnatural deaths, the South African Medical Research Council has also put forward a similar proposal. However, official statistics on such deaths, including those not due to homicide, show a decreasing trend. The trend in homicides since the eradication of capital punishment is therefore unclear. As indicated by the informationUnited Nations comparisons, South Africa still has a high homicide rate of 32 per 100,000, almost equivalent to Colombia, but lower than Jamaica, Honduras and El Salvador. The homicide rate in South Africa is however higher than that of Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Germany, France, Morocco, Australia, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal, which all vary between 0.7 and 1.3 every 100,000. The history of the death penalty in South Africa cannot be separated from the apartheid era, only whites imposed a judgment that mainly affected blacks. In the past, 98% of South African court judges were white. Black judges make up 44% while mixed-race and Indian judges make up 10% respectively. The multiracial makeup of courts may provide more noteworthy legitimacy, but that in itself does not guarantee that racial bias will somehow never influence judicial rulings. However, regardless of whether race could be entirely eliminated as a factor in such decisions, this would not eliminate other problems related to capital punishment. Now that South Africa is a democratic country and racial segregation is no longer the order of things, every individual has the right to a fair trial. The death penalty would be based only on the severity of the crime. The position in favor of the death penalty is equivalent to approving the brutality of the State which structures part of the planning of the murder. The death penalty therefore brutalizes public opinion as a whole and involves society in the kind of cruelty for which we would like the guilty to be punished. However, public opinion is calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty as criminals continue to commit horrific crimes particularly against society's most vulnerable individuals, women and children. The murder of Karabo Mokoena horrified South Africa. The details of Mokoena's death are gruesome. Karabo's youthful life was taken away in the most cruel and undignified way, her killer physically abused her for a month before her untimely death. Individuals who commit such crimes should have no place in society. It is unclear to what extent such a serious discipline as capital punishment can exert upon the criminal mind. This is especially evident in the case where the execution of the most ruthless and unjustifiably violent planned crimes usually invites such a sentence. According to Mehlkop and Graeff (2010) offenders apply the same cost-benefit analysis values ​​when choosing lawful behaviors. Therefore, the choice to break the law is influenced by their attitude towards time discounting, the risks involved and their preferences. Furthermore, offenders must also consider the costs and benefits. Sandile Mantsoe made the decision to kill Karabo and even went as far as hiding the murder and was not fully cooperative during the investigation, the perpetrator did not take into account the lives he would ruin by committing such a cruel crime. The death penalty is the appropriate punishment. The Case of Karabo Mokoena Chabalala (2018) reports that Karabo Mokoena was reported missing by her mother, Keabetswe Mokoena, after her family and friends did not hear from her for two weeks. Karabo Mokoena's charred remains were discovered by a construction worker in an open field in Lyndhurst, Johannesburg. The construction worker reported his findings to the police, where the case was assigned to Officer Madisha Mahwete. Officer Mahwete contacted Keabetswe informing her of an unidentified body in the morgue which could be that of Karabo, and it was later confirmed that the body was indeed Karabo Mokoena. The evidence found pointed to the ex,.