Capital punishment is the legal infliction of death by the state. It is obviously the most severe form of criminal punishment (Bedau 1). Capital punishment is a controversial way of dealing with violent criminals. The main alternative to the death penalty is life in prison. Capital punishment has been around for thousands of years as a means of eradicating criminals. The supporters claim that if you take a life you should pay with your life or "an eye for an eye". Opposers of the death penalty bring up the chance of sentencing the innocent and how the death penalty is inhumane. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the evolution and process of the death penalty.

The first evidence of capital punishment is from Hammurabi's code, a book of Babylonian law, from 1700BC. The Bible mentions that execution should be used for many crimes (Bedau 1). One example of the death penalty in the bible is "Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death." (Exodus 21:12) The bible also suggests stoning a woman if she unmarried sex and had "wrought folly on Israel by playing the harlot in her father's house" (Deuteronomy 22:21)

By the end of the 15th century England recognized seven major

Those who oppose the death penalty have come up with many reasons that life in prison without parole, or LWOP, is a better means of dealing with violent criminals. One reason is the risk of executing the innocent (Bedau 1). This risk is very small, considering that since 1900 only 23 people, who were possibly innocent, were executed. Those who oppose the death penalty also claim that the number of Blacks is disproportionate to that of women and white men (Bedau 1). This has been proven to be true and is the most vital argument of the opposers.

There has been a controversy over the death penalty ever since the Quakers fought for reform in the 1700's (Bedau 1). This conflict has two sides: those in favor of capital punishment, and those who view life without parole (LWOP) as a more humane alternative.

There are many forms of execution. Some have been labeled barbaric and forbidden nearly everywhere. Currently the only accepted means of execution are: electrocution, the gas chamber, firing squad and lethal injection (Bedau 1). The firing squad is only used in Utah upon the prisoner's request (Guernsey 54). Montana, New Hampshire and Washington are the only states that allow hangings.

The gas chamber was first used in Nevada in 1924 (Bedau 2). In this form of execution, the prisoner is strapped into a chair and cyanide gas is administered through a hole in the floor. Death takes from three to four minutes, but prisoners have been known to go into convulsions or choke to death on the gas (Guernsey 59).

crimes that called for execution. These crimes were: murder, theft (by deceitfully taking someone goods), burglary, rape, and arson. As time went by, more and more crimes were believed to deserve the death penalty, and, by 1800, more than 200 crimes were recognized as punishable by death (Bedau 2).

However, It was not long before capital punishment met with opposition. The Quakers made the first movement against execution. They supported life imprisonment

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