Persuasive Essay On Death Penalty

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To Kill or Not to Kill

There are a few issues that everyone seems to have a strong opinion on, and the death penalty belongs within that group of issues. The death penalty has a long history, dating back to Eighteenth Century B.C. (deathpenaltyinfo.org) and has remained a way to handle violent criminals among many countries throughout the world. I plan to investigate the history of the death penalty and investigate the ways that race and diversity impact the likelihood that a crime will be punishable by death.
The death penalty has been around for years. When I think of the death penalty today I think of violent crimes like murder, but in the past a death sentence was given over small things. It was not uncommon for people to be executed for the marrying someone of the wrong religion and stealing. In the past the methods of death were also more severe then what I think of today. Back then various methods included boiling, burning, impaling, and beheading.
The United States was not immune to using the death penalty on its citizens. The first execution on record was in 1608 in Jamestown, VA. The laws regarding the death penalty varied depending what colony you were living in. The death penalty was being used for petty crimes like stealing grapes. By the mid to late 1700’s, certain members of society began to feel that the death penalty was actually increasing the crime rate. This lead Pennsylvania to be the first state to only allow the death penalty for all crimes other than first degree murder. By the mid-1800s several other states were beginning to set strict criteria for the death penalty and were often moving executions from the public eye to correctional facilities. It is also around this time that Wisconsin abo...

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...le disagree with the death penalty is because it does not seem to be effective. Back in the 1700’s when Pennsylvania restricted the death penalty to first degree murder it was because they had believed that the death penalty may actually increase crime. Since 2008 the rate of murders has been lower in states without the death penalty than in states with the death penalty.
The death penalty has been around for a very long time, and I do not believe that it will ever entirely go away. But I do believe that if we are going to continue using it as a form of punishment in our country we need to do so equally for victims and perpetrators despite what race they are. We have come a long way as far as killing prisoners humanely, but based on some of the statistics I saw there is still a lot of prejudice regarding race when it comes to sentencing our criminals to death.

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