The Death Penalty Should Not Be Legal

This paper will briefly cover the world history of the use of the death penalty as well as its current use in the United States of America. The paper will discuss the statistics of how often the death penalty is utilized as a sentence for capital crimes as well as the time a convicted person spends awaiting the death penalty to be imposed. This paper will utilize research from published sources. This paper will also review current death penalty issues are the occurring in our court systems today.

They should be sought out and punished for crimes against humanity. There also should be an international coalition brought together to observe every execution to make sure nations abide by rules and regulations set forth by the international community. A total 139 countries has abolished the death penalty around the world (Sangiorgio, 2011). Support and the demand for the end of the death penalty are growing stronger every day and this article shows that the death penalty isn’t as popular as it used to be among people.

2003 - Worldwide, 115 countries have abolished the death penalty. The US lags behind only China and Iran in the number of executions carried out.

The Bill of Rights consists of ten amendments, which protects the natural rights of all American citizens. A major variety of these ten amendments helps assure the protection of some aspects that contribute to our daily lives. One amendment that stands out is the 8th Amendment: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” This amendment provides American

Even after these devastating facts, the death penalty still isn’t being put down in the United States. Thirty two of the fifty states in America allow for capital punishment. Lethal injections are the number one way to execute a criminal in America, and there are many other methods offered in select states. Texas, a state that strongly supports capital punishment, was the first state to carry out lethal injections on December 7, 1982 for the execution of Charles Brooks. Texas is also the first in the number of executions in the United States. If Texas made the death penalty illegal, the number of executions in the United States would decrease dramatically. Electrocution, lethal gas, a firing squad and even hangings still occur in the United States and are secondary options for many criminals in the country.

Then in the United States thirty- two states kept capital punishment to keep law and order in hand; however, eighteen states wanted to abolish capital punishment (Drehle Capital Punishment: the end of death penalty). In 2014 they reported that they had the least amount of capital punishment in twenty years (Drehle Capital Punishment)! When the government learned that from 1700 to 2017 that 1436 capital punishments were carried out and executed,

The lawful infliction of death of an individual is what is referred to as death penalty. Majority of the countries in the world have abolished the practice, however, there is no cord that has been officially formed by world countries against its use (Cole, 25). China, which is the most populous country in the world, leads as it executes thousands of inmates yearly. United States of America still practices it even when it is perceived the most democratic republic on earth. As of today, 84 countries in the world retain capital punishment (The Grinnell Literary Societies, 78). However, the number of nations using death penalty is decreasing. With the recent pressure from different human rights watch groups and religious groups more so from the Roman Catholic Church, the world remains optimistic that the practice will be done away with once and for all in all nations (Cole, 42).

Death penalty is a great example for cleansing the world from cold-blooded murderers. There are some countries that don’t even use that

(“History of Death Penalty Laws” n. pag.). There were close to 72,000 people executed in the sixteenth century and various capital offences which included marrying a Jew, not confessing to a crime, and treason. (“History of the Death Penalty” n. pag.). The number of crimes in Britain increased due to the crimes people committed. From 1823 to 1837, the death sentence was eliminated for over half of the crimes previously punishable by death (“History of the Death Penalty” n. pag.). There was a court case that used the death penalty in 1972 when a young girl was murdered while attending college (“Do Families of Victims Feel Justice with the Death Penalty?” Page 1-2). The Stambaugh brothers found out about their sisters death and demanded something to happen to the killer, Allen Walunga. They pushed the death penalty in the many court cases they attended. A probation officer stated, “if we had a death penalty in this state, I would recommend whatever the death penalty might be. This is a heinous crime and I agree that the chances of rehabilitation are poor” (“Death Penalty Would End Punishment of Victim’s Family” n. pag.). This case went on for thirty- seven years, and this family still did not get the justice they felt they deserved. Walunga was not sentenced to the death penalty at any time during any time while requesting for parole. This young girl lost her life, while the one who committed the crime continued to live.

Over the course of time, capital punishment has been one of the most controversial issues all over the world. According to Amnesty International, 141 countries have already abolished the capital punishment in their system. A total of 56 countries worldwide have the death sentence in law and in practice, ranking the Middle East and North Africa for

“Since 1973, at least 121 people have been released from death row after evidence of their innocence emerged. During the same period of time, over 982 people have been executed. Thus, for every eight people executed, we have found one person on death row who never should have been convicted. These statistics represent an intolerable risk of executing the innocent” (“Innocence”).

China has announced that they will stop this practice by mid-2014, and they will also hand out fewer and fewer death sentences to put a stop to the

Whether capital punishment is fair or not a longstanding controversy. Currently the punishment has still been carried out in some countries, such as China and the United States. Numbers of capital punishment in China is in the first place, compared to other countries (Sterbenz, 2014). However, 98 countries have abolished capital punishment (Amnesty International facts and figures on the death penalty, 2007). Although most of countries have no capital punishment to crimes, it is still argued whether it can decrease crime rate and other social issues.

Unfortunately, this kind of misjudgment can never be reversed in pair with capital punishment. Even if the innocent is proven to be not guilty in the future, no one is able to return his or her life back to the body. No matter what compensation the nation could offer afterwards, it will never result in fairness and equality. Therefore, capital punishment should be abolished to prevent those innocent people from horrible unfairness.

Capital punishment has in the past been practiced in virtually every society, although currently only 58 nations actively practice it, with 95 countries abolishing it and the remainder of 101 countries keep it as a law for really serious crimes.