The first time the death penalty was ever utilized was in 1622 to a man named Daniel Frank who was caught steeling. Around that time in the United States "Death penalty statistic were not kept properly until 1930"(Day 5). Threw out history though we have been told that "from 1882 through 1951 there where 4,730 recorded lynchings by vigilantes in the US (Crime). While since 1930 there have been more that 4,300 people executed in the United States. Which is a lot of people when you recall that from 1930-1967 3,859 of those 4,300 executions took place. We also have to put into cons

It is shown that you can be sentenced to death for commenting a variety of crimes. The biggest known reason for being sentenced to the death penalty is for committing first degree murder. Some other offenses that can cause you to be sentenced to the death penalty are for rape, armed robbery, and kidnapping in some states. Most people today argue about if people who act out acts of terrorism should be sentenced to the death penalty. The reason for this is because most people don't really know what terrorism really is. Most say it is " a symbolic act designed to influence political behavior by extranormal mean, entailing the use or threat of violence"(bedau 182), which makes people think if you should really be sentenced to death because you do an act of terrorism. Anther problem with terrorism is that "a man may commit a political murder that can be defined reasonably as terrorism, and under many legal systems he would receive a death sentence. But a "terrorist" may also commit armed robbery that does not result in any deaths, and he would not be likely to receive more that a prison term"(bedau 182), also helps to explain how they really don't know the different between a terrorist and acts of terrorism. All of this tries to help to explain if the death penalty should be considered "cruel and unusual."

Most people wonder if the death penalty is constitutional or if it is what we should call "cruel and unusual punishment." One of these reasons is because in the book Death Row they talk about some of the problems that have happened during the execution of a few people. It talks about in 1983 during an electrocution in Alabama it took three 1,000 volt charges to kill a man over a period of fourteen minutes. When after the second charge flame and smoke came from his left temple(9). Which to most people would seem to be cruel and unusual. It also explains in the book Death Row that "in another execution by lethal gas in Mississippi, the prisoner is reported to have had convulsions for eight minutes and to have struck his head repeatedly on the pole behind him"(9), which also shows another case where it seemed to be very cruel and unusual to most people. These many facts show that the death penalty could be a very cruel thing, but might be considered constitutional.

Many people feel that your race is another thing that would cause you to be sentenced to death. The reason for this

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Approximate Word count = 1626
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)