preview

Death Penalty: Execution In The United States

Decent Essays

“Who exactly gives us the right to kill? If killing is wrong, then why are we allowed to kill?”- John Grisham, bestselling author, attorney, and politician. The death penalty dates back to the Eighteenth Century B.C., but has only been in effect in America since the 1600’s. Execution in the U.S. is carried out by lethal injection, lethal gas, or the firing squad. The U.S. is one of the few westernized countries that have adopted capital punishment, and many countries that do practice it are communist. The death penalty is mainly state based, meaning the state is able to choose whether or not to practice capital punishment. However, the federal government has adopted capital punishment for federal offenses, such as treason, murder of a government official running a large-scale drug business, and kidnapping that results in death. While most states still continue with the death penalty, this practice is slowly dying. Nineteen states have already eradicated capital punishment, and more are leaning towards the idea of the abolishment. Capital punishment should be completely abolished from the U.S. The process of convicting and penalizing someone to the death penalty is a …show more content…

These accusations include that the death penalty makes people safer, as it discourages people from committing serious crimes. However, this is untrue as there is no credible evidence suggesting this claim. In fact, according to http://nccadp.org/issues/deterrence/ NC Department of Justice, since North Carolina has stopped applying the death penalty, the state murder rate has decreased. All over the nation murder rates are lower in states that don’t practice the death penalty. Since the death penalty is ineffective in more ways than one, all states should dismiss capital punishment and adopt life in prison. Life in prison is a better option because criminals have the chance to turn their lives around and become better

Get Access