Capital punishment is the legal infliction of the death penalty on persons convicted of a crime.(Cox 12) It is not intended to inflict any physical pain or any torture; however, it is a severe form of corporal punishment. It is unchangeable because it removes those punished from society permanently, instead of the alternative of life-long imprisonment. The death penalty has been imposed throughout history for many crimes, ranging from blasphemy and treason to petty theft and murder. Although the death penalty was widely accepted throughout the early United States, not everyone approved of it.

In the late-eighteen century, resistance to the death penalty gathered enough strength to lead to important restrictions on the use of the death penalty in several northern states, while Michigan, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island abandoned the practice altogether. (Kronenwetter 15) In 1794, Pennsylvania adopted a law to distinguish the degrees of murder, and only used the death penalty for premeditated first-degree murder. In 1846, Louisiana abolished the mandatory death penalty and authorized the option of sentencing a capital offender to life imprisonment rather than to death. Amendments were made

A major problem with capital punishment is that there continues to be many instances of innocent people being sentenced to death. In this legal system, there exists numerous ways in which justice might be poorly served for a recipient of the death sentence. Foremost is in the handling of the defendants defense counsel. In the event that the defendant is without counsel, a lawyer will be provided. In this case the state doesn't have to get a good lawyer they just have to provide "a" lawyer. If the state chooses a lawyer that is inexperienced it could costs the defendant his life. Another case in which our legal system causes problems could be a biased judge. If a judge is bias or maybe even prejudice, he or she could rule in favor of the prosecution. One more way our legal system could prohibit a fair trial is in the jury selection or panel. If a jury is selected that has prejudice, bias, or informed members, the defendant really has never had a chance and could be put to death!

In the United States, the death penalty is currently authorized in one of five ways: firing squad, hanging, gas chamber, electrocution, and lethal injection. These methods of execution compared to those of the past are not meant for torture, but meant for the punishment to fit the crime. Throughout history, governments have been extremely inventive in devising ways to execute people. Executions inflicted in the past are now regarded today as ghastly, barbaric, and unthinkable and are forbidden by law almost everywhere. Common historical methods of execution included: stoning, crucifixion, burning, breaking on the wheel, drawing and quartering, peine forte et dure, garroting, beheading or decapitation, shooting and hanging. These types of punishments today are considered cruel and unusual because we are becoming increasingly humane, individual rights, and due process of justice are held in high agreement. The death penalty is becoming an unrealistic form of punishment. This is!

In the United States, an additional objection to capital punishment has been that it was always used unfairly, in at least three major ways. "First, females are rarely sentenced to death and executed, even though 20 percent of all murders that have occurred in recent years were committed by women. Second, a disproportionate number of nonwhites are sentenced to death and executed. A black man who kills a white person is 11 times more likely to receive the death penalty than a white man who kills a black person. Third, poor and friendless defendants, those who are inexperienced or of court-appointed counsel, are most likely to be sentenced to death and executed." Defenders of the death penalty, argue that, because nothing found in the laws of capital punishment causes sexist, racist, or class bias in its use, these kinds of discrimination are not a sufficient reason for abolishing the death penalty on the idea that it discriminates or violates the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Opponents of capital punishment have replied to this by saying that the death penalty is subject to miscarriage of justice and that it would be impossible to administer fairly.(Carrington 103-105) Despite these controversies, according to a statement issued by George C. Smith support for the death penalty has grown in the U.S., as the crime rate increased. "In 1966, 42% of Americans were in favor of capital punishment while 47% were opposed to it. Since the crime rate United states has increased, support for the capital punishment has followed suit. In 1986, support for capital punishment was 80% for and only 17% against with 3% undecided, but most of the undecided votes said they were leaning toward a pro capital punishment stance, if they had to vote on it immediately." (Smith 85)

According to Isaac Ehrlich's study, published on April 16, 1976, eight murders a

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)