Is Capital Punishment Right?

Is Capital Punishment Right?

Capital punishment has been in effect since the 1600's. However, in 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment, which was unconstitutional according to the Eighth amendment. Since capital punishment has been reinstituted many people have argued for and against capital punishment. I feel the death penalty is a good form of justice because only about 250 people a year get the death penalty and they are guilty beyond a doubt and don't deserve living with the possibility of parole. Some of these mitigating factors are the defendant's motivation, character, personal history, and most of all remorse.

Every year approximately 250 new offenders are added to death row. This is a ridiculously low number compared to 199 persons executed in 1935. The reason for this slow execution rate is the process of appeals, from sentencing to execution there is about a seven to eight year wait. The convict's cases' are reviewed by the state courts and through the federal courts. With all this opportunity for the case to be turned over or the sentence to be changed it is almost impossible for an innocent person to be executed. Only two people have been proved innocent after their execution in the United States. These wrongful deaths occurred in 1918 and 1949. Since then the justice system has undergone a lot of fine tuning making this extremely unlikely today.

If someone is lined up for execution then they more than likely deserve it. They have caused a great deal of grief to the family and friends of the victim or victims and it seems like the only way justice could be served is for the criminal to die. For the person to simply go to jail seems unfair. There they will eat three meals a day, get to watch cable T.V., and befriend other inmates. They live a pretty decent life in prison and they don't deserve it.

Out of the fifty states in the United States 37 have and use capital punishment. Out of the same fifty states only 18 have life imprisonment with out parole. In the other 32 states a person who should've been executed can be released after as little as 20 years in prison.

There are certain standards that are followed in giving out capital punishment. The defendant can not be insane, and the criminal intent must be present. Also, minors very rarely receive the death penalty because