In most states, a person convicted of first degree murder has the potential to be given the death penalty. Capital punishment is a subject that can be counted upon to stir emotion and controversy into any conversation or argument. The very concept provokes a profusion of valid questions and opinions. Today's daily world of crime and violence calls for punishment of a severe nature, and many citizens argue that the punishment necessary is the death penalty. These people quote passages such as the "an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" concept from the Old Testament of the Judeo-Christian bible. Some people take the neutral position that there is no right or wrong answer, that each opinion on capital punishment is valid in its own way. Opponents of the death penalty claim that sentencing a person to death does not change the reality of the situation; the

y that these people did not listen to their mothers when they were told "two wrongs do not make a right." They say these men and women have not grown out of a tendency toward violence and a shunning of the virtues of mercy and forgiveness, in addition to morality.

Both the issues of innocence and racism are prevalent when the death penalty is at hand. In 1980, in the state of Texas, a black high school janitor, Clarence Bradley, and his white co-worker found the body of a missing 16-yr old white schoolgirl. Interrogated by the police, they were told, "One of you is going to hang for this." Looking at Bradley, the officer said, "and since you're the black one, you're elected." In a classic case of rush to judgment, Bradley was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. The circumstantial evidence against him was thin and the racism was heavy. In 1986 Centurion Ministries, a volunteer group devoted to freeing wrongly-acused prisoners, came to Bradley's aid. Evidence had meanwhile emerged that another man had commited the murder for which Bradley was awaiting execution. Bradley was not released until 1990, a full year later.

Capital punishment is forbidden by law and widely abandoned in practice worldwide, in almost every country outside the U.S.. There are 50 national organizations that are involved in the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty in American alone.

1. Death penalty states average an annual rate of 7.9 homicides per one hundred thousand people while abolitionist states average 5.1 murders for the same amount of people.

It is reported that if the alternative were life imprisonment without possiblity of parole, plus financial restitution to society, only a minority of the American public would support the death penalty.

In response to the "eye for an eye" concept, opponents of capital punishment inevitably take the standpoint that killing one another is wrong in every manner regardless whether it is just or not. A society that respects human life does not deliberately kill human beings. An execution is a violent public spectacle of official homicide and one that endorses killings to solve social problems. It is unjustified retribution Capital punishment is cruel and unusual punishment , being a relic of when slavery, branding, and other such corporal punishments were common.

It is sometimes argued that abolishing capital punishment is unfair to the taxpayers. This is assuming that life imprisonment costs are more than those of when the death penalty is an issue. However, if you were to add up the costs of litigation -- the time of judges, prosecutors, public defenders, court reporters, and the high cost of briefs -- you would find that the contrary is true. In the court of law, time is money, and a capital punishment is inevitably going to be much longer, not to mention the chance of an appeal will go much higher.

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Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)