Approval ratings in the United States for the death penalty hover around 70 percent, up nearly 50 percent from twenty-five years ago. A recent poll in Texas, which leads the nation in the numbers of executions, stated that 87 percent support the death penalty (Steffen 1). These polls would leave us to believe that a majority of Americans support the death penalty.

In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was constitutional if imposed for certain crimes like murderer and only if carried out under certain standards. After this decision many state legislatures created new capital punishment laws that adhered to the Supreme Court ruling. These laws limit the death penalty to be used in cases where it involves a murder of another. Other crimes include armed robbery, hijacking

For example Timothy McViegh, he wanted the federal court system to kill him. He looked at himself as a martyr for his cause and our government was just helping him fulfill his wish. But the real punishment for him would have been a long slow death in a federal prison. For the longest time there was this outrage amongst some Americans and some of the victims' families of the Oklahoma City Bombing tragedy, that McVeigh needed to died so these people could have closure. But how can closure come from another death for no reason, especially if this man wanted to die. I'm sure we may be facing the same problem with Bin Laden if we catch him, but of course that is how he wants to go down as a martyr and is exactly what we will be doing if we use the death penalty.

A major problem with the death penalty is racial discrimination. While African American only account for twelve percent of this nation's population, nearly 40 percent of the convicts on death row are African American (Taylor 37). It's worse in the federal system, with nearly 75 percent of the death row inmates being minorities. This is just an example of overwhelmingly evidence and support that the death penalty is racially bias and unfair. 51 percent of people executed for murders were black (Bedau). And a study in Georgia regarding racial discrimination stated, "the average odds of receiving a death sentence among all indicted cases were 4.3 times higher in cases with white victims" (Bedau). And not only is it racially bias but also financially bias because 90 percent of all inmates sentenced to death row could not even afford to hire a lawyer.

The death penalty is also very barbaric. Some states still use hanging as a form of execution. If the drop doesn't kill the inmate, the prisoner will die a slow agonizing death of suffocation. Some still die by firing squ

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Approximate Word count = 1246
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)