Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment – An Overview

"The question with which we must deal is not whether a substantial

proportion of American citizens would today, if polled, opine that capital punishment is

barbarously cruel, but whether they would find it to be so in light of all information

presently available."- Justice Thurgood Marshall

Imagine a man who commits murder once, is given a fifteen-year jail sentence

and is returned to the streets where he kills again. He is imprisoned again only to be

released. This could happen since almost one in ten death row inmates has been

convicted of murder at least once. That means that some death row inmates have been

given more than one chance to rehabilitate in prison and continue to commit violent

crimes. Should the United States justice system continue to let violent criminals back on

the streets where they are likely to commit murder again? Capital punishment is one of

the oldest forms of punishment in the world. Most societies have considered it a fair

punishment for severe crimes.   It is even mentioned as an appropriate punishment in

the Bible. American colonists used capital punishment before the United States was a

country, and most states use it today. Currently, however, there is a great deal of

controversy surrounding the death penalty. Capital cases are long and expensive, and

there is no proof as to whether capital punishment deters crime. For these reasons total

abolition may be the best way to resolve the capital punishment controversy. If the laws

concerning capital punishment were modified, however, capital punishment could

become much cheaper, and possibly a lot more effective. – Steve Brinker Capital

Punishment:   Give It A Chance

Since the beginning of man, people have been put to death.   Capital

punishment has been used all over the world as a means of punishing people for their

crimes.   Here in America, people are usually... [continues]

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