could be considered a form of slavery to some, but it is no different from the days of being sent to the "yard" to break stone. One of the most well-known examples of the criminal contributing to the betterment of society is the case Leopld and Loeb. They were nineteen years old when they committed "The Crime of the Century." In 1924, they kidnapped and murdered a fourteen-year-old boy just to see how it would feel to kill someone. They were both spared the death penalty and sentenced to life imprisonment. (Bedau 78) Together their accomplishments included working in hospitals, teaching the illiterate how to read, creating a correspondence school, writing a grammar book, and making significant developments in the World War!

II Malaria Project.(Bedau 193) "An inestimable amount of people were directly helped by Leopold and Loeb, Both of tem made a conscious commitment to atone their crimes by serving others."(Bedau 217) The most widely used form of execution has been electrocution. With this method of executing a prisoner, the individual is strapped to a chair along with electrodes attached all over the body. The executioner then proceeds to "throw the switch" sending vast amounts of electricity flowing throughout the prisoner. During this period, the prisoners flesh burns and the body shakes violently from the overdose of electricity. When it is all over, smoke is often seen coming from the head of the corpse. (Ernest Van den Haag 135) Officials often defend this punishment as not being cruel and unusual, but how can they defend the opinion in the case of John Evans who was executed by electrocution in 1983? According to witnesses at the scene of the death of Mr. Evans, he was given three charges of electricity over a period of fourteen minutes. After the first and second charges, Mr. Evans was still conscious and smoke was coming from all over his body, as a result from his flesh burning. An official at the prison even tries to stop the execution on account of it being cruel punishment, but the man was unsuccessful. Witnesses later called the whole incident "a barbaric ritual". (Haag 221) Another method of execution is the gas chamber; during this procedure a prisoner is put in a closed chamber and forced to inhale lethal fumes from a sulfuric acid and a cyanide chemical reaction. (Haag 243) According to a statement given by the U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens concerning the 1992 execution of Donald Harding, there did not seem to be any civilized aspect of the gas chamber method of executing prisoners. (Haag 259) According to the report, Harding tried to hold his breath inside the chamber. When he finally began to take in fumes, his body started going into convulsions and the muscles and veins under his skin were twitching in a wave-like motion. This execution took over eight minutes to complete, and Mr. Harding was writhing in pain for most of the time. According to officials, Harding did not fall unconscious until right before his death. (Haag 262) The latest method of execution has been lethal injection. It has become deemed as the cleanest form that a prisoner can die. It s thought to be the cleanest because it does not maim the body, unlike all of the other methods of execution. Nonetheless, it is in the opinion of this author that this is still another unjust form of punishment. At the 1988 execution of Raymond Landry, persons at the scene had to repeatedly puncture him because he had very small veins. In addition to this cruel treatment, during the procedure, the tube attached to the needle leaked and the harsh chemicals used to kill Landry were sprayed into the direction of the witnesses. (Haag 307) Besides this case, there have been cases where the victims were not given a strong enough dosage and writhed in pain for several minutes while still conscious. In a statement to the Associated Press, many police officials who have been witnesses to the death penalty, they say it should be abolished because

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bedau Society, Isaac Ehrlich's, Donald Harding, Associated Press, John Evans, Stanford University, Leopold Loeb, Supreme Court, John Lock, United Constitution, death penalty, capital punishment, cruel unusual, supreme court, death penalty fails, opponents capital, moral argument, abolished barbaric, victim's family, violent criminals, opponents capital punishment, death penalty abolished, van den haag, associated press, taking law own,
Approximate Word count = 3991
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page double spaced)