Capital Punishment: An Introduction
Every year there are roughly 250 people added to death row and 35 put to death. The death penalty is the severest form of punishment imposed on the criminals. Once a jury has condemned a criminal offense they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase. If the jury recommends the death penalty and the judge agrees then the criminal faces some form of execution, lethal injection is the most common form used at present. There was a period from 1972 to 1976 that capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court. Their reason for this decision was that the death penalty was unusual punishment under the eighth amendment. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced.
Defending Capital Punishment
Capital punishment to the people who have been judged to commit some awfully atrocious crimes is a practice of ancient eminence. However in the United States, in the latter half of the twentieth century, it has become a very divisive issue. Changing views on this issue led the Supreme Court to abolish capital punishment in 1972 but later turned to support it again in 1977, with certain conditions. Certainly, re-establishing capital punishment is the will of the aggrieved people; nevertheless many voices have been raised against it. Intense public debate have centered on questions of deterrence, public safety, sentencing equality, and the execution of innocents, among others. One argument states that the death penalty does not prevent murder. Setting aside capital punishment on that basis would require to abolish all prisons too since they do not seem to be any more useful in the prevention of crime.
In 1985, a study was published by economist Stephen K. Alyson (p, 68-69), at the University of North Carolina, that showed.......
