In the spring of 2008, British authorities sentenced Douglas Gary Vinter to life in prison for the murder and mutilation of his wife, Anne White. Less than three years earlier, Vinter had been granted parole after an earlier life conviction for the murder of a workmate (“Sentenced to Life Again”). At that point, he had been deemed fit to safely assimilate into society. As the Vinter case portrays, the flaw of the criminal justice system in granting nominal life sentences may only be corrected by the widespread implementation of the death penalty. But the option of a death penalty has created backlash from the general public, many believing it is inhumane and a violation of human rights. The main questions asked in these types of situations …show more content…
Anti-death penalty advocates argue that the high cost of executing a person is another reason for the elimination of the death penalty. The theoretical cost of the death penalty does not lie in the procedure itself, but rather in the process leading up to the execution (Gaylord and Galliher 102). Although taxpayer dollars are important to the capital punishment debate, the death penalty is predominantly a moral issue. Opponents believe it is inhumane to permanently prevent a murderer from committing the same crime again. But, had Douglas Vinter been sentenced to death, he would not have been released in 2005, and he would not have been able to murder his wife years later. Pro-death penalty supporters believe the painful emotional tolls on the victims’ families are just as evil as allowing the felon to commit another crime. The loss of a loved one leaves permanent scars on the families – many whom live with haunting memories of what could have been. The people who support the death penalty claim that sacrifices must be made in order to protect the greater public from the dangers of convicted criminals, but especially from the heartache they …show more content…
The levels of hell in Dante‘s Inferno are classified based on Dante’s own beliefs and opinions, which leave room for others’ views on how each sin should be categorized. He says that the four worst sins are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. During the fourteenth century, while Dante Alighieri was writing The Divine Comedy, Christianity created a strong bond between people and the spiritual world, and faithfulness to their religion became a priority. The few who refused to convert to Catholicism were labeled heretics. The heretics wanted the right to freely practice their faith, which the Church defined as evil and a sin, making it one of Dante’s Circles of Hell. This is a prime example of how evil can be interpreted in various ways depending on ones personal experiences or viewpoints. If someone was given a list of the sins and told to classify them in a particular order, the results would vary because every person has a different interpretation of evil. Another example of this ambiguity is the conflict between Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies. After Thorin, Bilbo, and the rest of the dwarves arrived at the Lonely Mountain, the gold within made Thorin develop “dragon sickness,” an illness that causes a person to be overcome with greed for gold and treasure. In Thorin’s case, there was nothing he wanted more than “The Arkenstone,” and his growing