Race Is NOT a Factor in Capital Punishment

The death penalty’s main argument is morality. Is it wrong or is it right to sentence someone to death for a crime. The idea of capital punishment stems back from the world’s earliest known societies (Garland, 2011). In the United States today the death penalty is used as form of punishment in 32 states. America is a country of opinion, Americans have their own outlook on everything and the death penalty is no different. Many Americans feel capital punishment is wrong and unethical; while other Americans feel it is ethical and needed.
The death penalty can be traced all the way back to the 18th Century B.C. in Babylon to the Hammurabi Codes (“Introduction to the Death Penalty,” 2014). The Hammurabi codes had 25 different crimes that were punishable by the death penalty (“Introduction to the Death Penalty,” 2014). Capital punishment was used in almost all societies after its introduction in the 18th century B.C. The means of death varied from country to country. Some countries had very cruel tactics such as: burnings, drowning, beating to death, and even crucifying people (Nicolau, 2013).
Some researchers believe that the United States still enforces the death penalty because of the historical background. The death penalty has been used in America from day one. Public ceremonies and certain execution rituals were done from the 18th century until the early 19th century (Garland, 2011). Getting into the 19th century capital punishment’s primary reason was changing (Garland, 2011). Garland explains capital punishment as being a rule of the state’s security, to it becoming an instrument of the penal system (2011). This change made capital punishment a penal sanction; making it less of a political spectacle. The executions were now don...

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.... Retrieved February 24, 2014, from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
Galliher, J. F., Koch, L., & Wark, C. (2012). The Death of the American Death Penalty: States Still Leading the Way. Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Garland, D. (2011). America's Death Penalty: Between Past and Present. New York: New York University Press.
Introduction the Death Penalty. (2014). Retrieved February 17, 2014, from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/part-i-history-death-penalty
Nicolau, I. (2013). Historical Evolution of the Death Penalty Abolition as a Fundamental Human Right. Contemporary Readings In Law & Social Justice, 5(2), 278-283.
Meranze, M. (2011). The Death Penalty: Between Law, Sovereignty, and Biopolitics. New York: New York University Press.
Vollum, S. (2008). Last Words and the Death Penalty: Voices of the Condemned and Their Co-victims. New York: LFB Scholarly Pub.