The Death Penalty

When the death penalty is brought up for debate, some people see it to be unfair or an inhuman way of punishment. Others might say that the punishment fits the crime.

I believe that the death penalties also known as capital punishment should be used in our county’s justice system as a form of punishment for horrendous crimes.

Capital punishment was legal until 1972, after the Supreme Court declared it to be unconstitutional in Furman v. Georgia case. The court stated that it violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments for being a cruel punishment.

However, in 1976, the Supreme Court reversed itself with Gregg v. Georgia case that reinstated the death penalty as a human way of punishment; but not all states accepted the death penalty. The following states do not currently have the death penalty: Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, Vermont, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Alaska, District of Colombia, Iowa, Hawaii, Main, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

I agree with the death penalty because I believe that if the crime was that horrendous then the convicted person should be punished with the lost of one’s own life. I do not think that a lifetime spent in prison, although it might not seem nice, is a sentence equal to the crime committed.

Many would probably say that just because you took a person’s life, does not mean that he or she was punished for the crime. Punishment can be looked at as something that makes the individual feel pain and suffering and that gives them time to reflect upon their actions.

Right now our justice system takes 6-10 years for a convicted felon to be given the death sentence. What good would it do for a criminal to reflect upon their actions? Can we let them back out into the world to maybe commit the crime aging?

The death penalty has existed for hundreds of years. The first death sentence that was recorded dated back to the 16th century BC in Egypt. Even the ancient laws of China in the 18th century BC, the code of King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for several different crimes, although murder was then not one of them.

The first legal execution of a criminal occurred in 1622 when Daniel Frank was accused of theft in Virginia. Many colonies in America were very strict in their use of death penalty, while others were not. The capital laws of England went into effect between 1636-1647 and its was here where the death penalty was handed out for pre- meditated murder, rebellion, sodomy, witchcraft, adultery, manslaughter, assault in anger, statutory rape, rape, man stealing, perjury in a capital trial, and poisoning (Reggio, 1997, p.3)

Different countries, cultures, and states were in many arguments of what should be seen as a cruel crime to deserve the death penalty.

The question at hand, is the death penalty actually the best way to punish the wrongdoer? The first major reform of the death penalty occurred between 1833-1853. It was a very sensitive subject that attracted many people’s attention. Many states enacted private hangings. By 1849, fifteen states were allowed to hold private executions. Many death penalty abolitionists who thought public executions would eventually cause people to cry out against execution itself opposed this move. In