Capital Punishment Essay - America Needs the Death Penalty

America Needs the Death Penalty

Ever since the death penalty has been declared constitutional in 1976,

thousands of people have been placed on death row and 314 of them have been

executed.( Yaffe,1) Thirty-eight states now allow the death penalty, with New

York being the last to adapt this legislation last March. Massachusetts and

Iowa have been trying to pass a law that would to allow the death penalty to be

used in their states. Capital punishment is most often saved for murder and

sometimes arson, treason, burglary, and forcible rape of a 14 year old or under

from a 18 year old or older, but it varies within each state. There are many

politicians who are trying to pass laws banning the death penalty. There are

around 3000 people on death row across the country right now and if these

politicians get their way, then 3000 lives will be spared.(Matthews,1) The rage

of this issue continues to persist with many people questioning if capital

punishment is really the answer to solving the problem of crime. The death

penalty sh ould beallowed because it is not inhumane but rather fair and it's

continued use will end up helping out society in many ways.

Many people who oppose the death penalty say it is inhumane and unfair.

These people who oppose it say that all human life has the right to be respected.

All human life does have the right to be respected but there is a point when

that right can be lost, if someone takes the life of another human being then

they have given up that right. Another claim the opposers to the death penalty

make is that the death penalty encourages more murders because if people see the

authority taking someone's life, then they will think they can do it too. This

is not true, if criminals see that more and more people are getting the death

penalty, this will cause them to think their actions over. The United Kingdom

abolished the death penalty in 1965 and since then, violent crime has more than

doubled.(Matthews,2) The death penalty is not inhumane because it can be done

painlessly and quickly. In most cases when the execution was performed the

process that was most often used was lethal injection. Out of the 314

executions that have taken place since 1976 the majority of them, 179 have been

done by means of lethal injection. The electric chair has been used 123 times,

the gas chamber: 9 times, a firing squad: twice, and hanging: once.(Rodriquez,

4) Lethal injection is a quick, non-suffering way to execute the death row