Capital Punishment
Every year, 250 people are placed on the already extensive list of death row inmates. 35 of the people on that same list are executed that same year. Today, the death penalty is the most severe type of punishment a person can receive in the United States. Over the decades, the forms of execution have been adjusted to the times. From 1972 to 1976, all forms of capital punishments were determined to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court under the 8th amendment, stating that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment.
Since then, lethal injection has been introduced and used as the prime tool for executions today. No longer does the United States allow any other forms of execution other then lethal injection, the electric chair, or the gas chamber. Capital punishment is a very controversial topic, containing both positive and negative attributes. In essence, you could call it "Playing God": no one wants to do it, but it has come to the point where someone has to do something. The system of capital punishment could spiral out of control and become completely ineffective if nothing is done soon. I can see the good and the bad in the death penalty, but I personally cannot decipher which is better. Most people might be able to choose if they are pro-life or pro-death; however, I have not been so successful.
One of the many conflicts when addressing capital punishment is what is more of a punishment: Death or Life? Is it more cruel and unusual to condemn someone to sit in a jail cell of the rest of their life or sentence them to be put to death? The death penalty is not seen as being morally wrong through the eyes of a retentionist. They see the problem with capital punishment as the prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment," also known as the 8th Amendment.
From the opposite side, the death penalty is viewed to be inhumane, cruel, and disregarding of a person's right to live. However, most proponents state that...
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