Capital Punishment
...is a heated debate on whether states should be able to kill other humans or not. People that are in favor of the death penalty say that it saves money by not paying for housing in a maximum prison. Those opposed say that it is against the constitution, and is cruel and unusual punishment for humans to be put to his or her death. I believe that the death penalty is against the constitution and is cruel and unusual punishment. It is an unusual punishment because it does not happen very often and it should not happen at all. Therefore, capital punishment should be abolished.
Capital punishment is the death penalty, and has been legal in most states for many years. The death penalty did not begin reporting executions until 1930, although legal executions have been preformed before then. From 1930 to 1992, there have been 4,002 executions in the United States (Foster, Jacobs, Siegel 54). From the 1930s to the 1960s, there was a steep drop in the total number of executions in the United States until the mid 1960s. The drop in executions was due to the lack of public support and legal challenges. Then a ten-year suspension began in order to determine a constitutionally acceptable way to carry out the death penalty (Foster, Jacobs, Siegel 54). The suspension stopped in 1976. Since then, there have only been 525 executions. Currently, there are about 3,000-3,500 inmates on death row (Wekesser 139), waiting for their death to come by either hanging, lethal injection, or even shot by a firing squad. The number is constantly changing due to the release of inmates on death row.
America's laws are based on the Constitution. They are considered to be justifiable, on what should be right; and are supposed to be the foreground for future laws. It is unconstitutional, though, for an American to be sentenced to his or her death. The eighth amendment states,...
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