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Human Rights "The Death Penalty" Comedian Al Franken recently joked that Governor Bush of Texas really does care about America's children, so much that as proof the Governor has never elected to execute anyone under the age of fourteen. This joke was funny, but the use of the death penalty in our modem times is not. According to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." Also, Article 3 states that "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Article 2 entitles us to these rights without race as a factor. Condemning prisoners to death violates all three articles. We live in a violent society, but killing these people will not make our society less violent. You cannot kill anyone because if they do not ha�e the right to kill, why do you have that right. We have people who control crime through imprisonment. We might not be able to control the criminal's behavior but we can control ours. If our government is involved with killing people to control bad behavior, then our kids will see that this is a reasonable way to resolve problems. We have an obligation as a society to show our children, as well as the rest of the world, civilized behavior. There is a complicated process in bringing criminals to justice. Along the way, many people are involved and at any point mistakes can be made. We have laws, police officers, advisors, lawyers, judges, more judges, jurors, doctors, social workers, and witnesses who at any point could change the results of the case. There seems to be a lot more people of minority groups on death row than in our total population. I realize this is a hotly debated topic, but it must be addressed completely before we can consider the process to be final enough to kill somebody. And it never will be, due to all the chances of mistakes. We would have to be so sure of a case against any human being to remove all possibilities of error, but it just cannot be done. Every day we hear about people on death row asking for and getting new trials because something in the process was in question.. , we also hear of some being put to death. Of the civilized countries of the world, the United States is the only country that allows its government to kill people. When I talk to my exchange student/sister from France, she is horrified that our country would even consider killing people. Many of the exchange students that I have spoken to crossed Texas off of their list of places to go to because Texas uses the death penalty. These foreign students do not irnow what other things Texans might allow, so they are sfraid to go there. In conclusion, it is embarrassing to live in a country that uses the death penalty as a solution to our problems. It is tightening to think that some people will be wrongly convicted through our processing of criminals due to weaknesses in the system, and some of these people will die. Everybody does have the right to life, liberty and security of person, and we have the obligation to enforce our laws this way.