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Capital Punishment is when a person is executed by the state or country as a punishment for committing a heinous crime. This is also known as the death penalty. Many people think that Capital Punishment should be banished because it violates the rights of the people but others think that it should be executed as long as the crime is fits the punishment. In my opinion, I think that Capital Punishment should be used as long as the crime is horrible enough.
Executions in the United States have been dropping constantly due to the legal battles regarding whether Capital Punishment is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment which states that it is against cruel and unusual punishment. Also the numbers of executions have been dropping because lethal injections, which is one of the two most common ways of being executed, were being applied improperly. Convict Angel Nieves Diaz was executed on December 13, 2006 by the lethal injection. These injections were applied improperly so they had to do it twice, which witness say caused him pain. Due to this act of cruelty and negligence, Florida governor Jeb Bush halted legal injections in the state of Florida.
More than a thousand inmates have been executed by Capital Punishment since it was reinstated in 1976. Only 38 states in the United States use the death penalty. The other 12 states have abolished Capital Punishment because it is unconstitutional. The states that do apply the death penalty follow the guidelines for putting an inmate on death row. Usually, criminals that commit first-degree murder are put on death row. People who are against the death penalty state that the odds of executing an innocent person should stop them from using the death penalty. They also question the fairness on how Capital Punishment is applied.
In 2007 42 inmates were executed, which was 11 less than the year before. All of those 42 inmates were male. 41 of those executions were done by the lethal injection and one was done by electrocution. Out of those 42 inmates, 28 were white and 14 were black.
Capital Punishment has been applied ever since ancient times. In England in the 1500, Capital Punishment was used only for major crimes like treason, murder, larceny, burglary rape and arson. In the 1750′s philosophers began to argue against Capital Punishment saying that it was cruel and sometimes was wrong because the wrong person was executed. This arguing started take effect in the 1850′s because Venezuela and Portugal abolished Capital Punishment altogether. Michigan was the first state to abolish it in 1847. Now a days, mostly all of western Europe and most of of Latin America has abolished Capital Punishment.
I personally think that Capital Punishment is correct to a certain extent. They should only use the death penalty if they are 100 percent sure that the person they are going to execute is guilty. so that they won’t be executing an innocent person. Also they should only use the death penalty on people who have committed grave crimes.
http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2007/January/20070103125318lhmnietsua0.7334558.html
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm
http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/thoughts.html
