Capital punishment is defined as the legal infliction of the death penalty. Today, in modern law, the death penalty is corporal punishment in its most severe form. The word "capital" in "capital punishment" refers to a person's head (Flanders 2). In the past, people were often executed by chopping off their head. Capital punishment has been part of criminal justice systems since the earliest of times. The Babylonian Hammurabi Code, created in 1700 B.C., decreeded the death penalty for crimes

In 1989, the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty could be used on those who were mentally retarded or underage (but 16 years and over) at the time of the killing (Bright and Keenan 38). This brings up an extremely questionable matter on human rights. While some people think that killers and other criminals should not be given any rights, others think differently. Groups, which argue the death penalty, suggest proof that it is the ultimate denial of human rights. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment (Humana 12-15). In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration, adopted without dissent, is a pledge among nations to promote fundamental rights as the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world. The Declaration proclaims each person's right to protection from deprivation of life, and it categorically states that no one shall be subjected to cruel or degrading punishment. The death penalty -- the pre-meditated and cold-blooded killing of prisoners in state custody -- violates both of these rights (Humana 21-24)

Those who argue against the death penalty as a deterrent to crime say that deterrence is an argument often cited to justify the death penalty. The threat of execution at a future date does not enter the minds of killers. Many of these criminals are acting under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, in the grip of fear or rage, panicking while committing another crime, or simply lacking an understanding of the gravity of their crime. No credible study yet has produced any solid scientific evidence that the death penalty deters violent crime (Cavanaugh 80-84). According to FBI statistics, the murder rate in some states, which use the death penalty, is twice that of some states, which do not use the death penalty (Flanders 13). Between 1976 and 1985, almost twice as many law enforcement officers were killed in death penalty states as were killed in states that do not execute (15). A Department of Public Law study conducted in Nigeria concluded that "...no efficacy can be shown for the operation of the death penalty" in cases of either murder of armed robbery (21). Also, the 1988 Report to the United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, a detailed international study, found that all its documented research "has failed to provide scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent effect than life imprisonment( 25). The current prevailing view among criminologists is that no conclusive evidence exists to show that death, as punishment is a more effective deterrent to violent criminal activity than life-long imprisonment (Long 53).

Those who oppose the death penalty, also have valid arguments taken from the Bible. Many early Christian writers who discussed capital punishment were absolutely opposed to it. Christians were instructed not to execute a criminal, to not attend public executions and even to not lay a charge against a person if it might eventually result in their execution ( Flanders 74). One example is Lactantius, (260 to 330 CE) an early Christian writer, who was primarily known for his books "Introduction to True Religion" and "The Divine Institutes." He wrote in The Divine Institutes, Book 6, Chapter 20 that:

The death penalty is a uniquely irrevocable punishment, it demands infallibility of the human beings that are part of the legal system which imposes death. Human beings are fallible, therefore, innocent people have been executed in the past and will continue to be executed in the future. A recent study used by groups, which oppose the death penalty, revealed over 400 cases of wrongful conviction for capital offenses in the United States between 1900 and 1991. Most of the convictions were upheld on appeal, with evidence produced years after sentencing to prove the prisoner's innocence. However, for 23

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