I understand, and the point of punishment is to well… punish the offender for the offence they committed, and to deter others who might not be at the ‘best’ version of themselves from thinking of committing the same offence.

Punishment and deterrence. It is something that my country of Singapore has no end of pride in when talking about the low crime. It helps that some subset of the population of Singapore do serve for a time in the Singapore Police Force as part of HomeTeamNS, which helps assure the people that the police are accountable, lest an NSman whistleblow upon the issues that they face or some other systemic problem.

Now, our justice system isn’t perfect, and some scandals over the years regarding the legal system’s favoritism towards the affluent, and the high performing students have made the news. But the things that attract the death penalty are things that can be proven beyond reasonable doubt, with objective measures on the evidence like the presence and amount of drugs that indicate dealing and trafficking, being a partner to or as an offender in the use of firearms in service to a crime, and intentioned murder.

We put these hard and very provable requirements on the sentencing of the death penalty because it is no joke, that the courts have to be as infallible as possible in handing out these judgements.

We support the existence of death penalty in our justice system because we find it necessary to safeguard us from these heinous crimes in a way that best minimizes damage to our society, and we trust our courts to be impartial and discerning in each case they hear where it is in the cards.

Can yoir country achieve the same? That is the question you must ask before you consider implementing the death penalty. Your institutions must be strong, competent, and incorruptible before you can do these things. It is a hallmark of good governance that we can do all of these terrible punishments (including caning!) without regret.

That being said, it is extremely sad what happened to that 14 year old girl in India. May those rapist-murderers find their due justice in the questionable institutions of India. It is because of poor deterrence, corrupt institutions, and the poor attitude of the populace that this goes on unfettered in India. I hope you agree that they anger you as well as they did me.

At the end of it all, it is our choices of action that define us, not our thoughts. May you find it within you to accept yourself and all of your thoughts as your own.