Death Penalty in America
History of death penalty in America
Capital Punishment for short death penalty has a long and nearly uninterrupted history in the United State,Indeed in the 18th and 19th century,the death penalty was used to punish a wide array of crimes ,from murder and rape to horse stealing and arson. The movement to abolish death penalty has an equally long history due to the contractions between the supporters and those who are against it.From the earliest days of European settlement in North America quakes and other religious and secular groups have worked together to end or atleast to limit the use of death penalty,And inspite of general support for executions,abolitionist have had their shared of success. Opposition to death penalty also has helped to change the way people are executed,for instance until the 20th most convicted criminals were hanged infront of the the public.The last 100 years have seen an end to public execution as well as the development of new methods that aim to be more humane,namely THE ELECTRIC CHAIR and most recently LETHAR INJECTIONS
EXECUTIONS
LETHAR INJECTIONS is the mostly current used to execute the convicted criminals.Actually it involves the use of a three drug combinations for execution;First the inmate is rendered un conscious with SODIUM THIOPENTAL,as a sedetative used as an anesthics.Next PANCURIUM BROMIDE is used to induce paralysing throught the body.Finally,SODIUM CHLORIDE is injected to stop the heart from beating. According to the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION in 15 laws,require medical doctors to atleast be present during an execution time,because is believed that LETHAL INJECTION is a medical procedures.However at the same time the AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION for short [AMA] has also stated that,”it is a violation of medical ethics for doctors to participate in,or even to be present at the execution, because Physicians such as doctors,are suppose to heal and not to hurt people..” Opponents of LETHAR INJECTIONS,claims that it causes excruciating pain,rather than to be shot once with a gun,but the court ruled that the method of lethal injection used in almost all states that have death penalty statutes does not violate the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
PUBLIC OPINIONS
Some of the sharpest differences in public opinions about capital punishment [death penalty] occur along racial lines.More than two-thirds of white population[68%] support the death penalty,while 40% of blacks express the same opinions.HISPANICS are evenly split on the issues,48% support the death penalty while ,47% oppose it. More politically conservative individuals are more likely to support the death penalty and more political liberal are more likely to oppose it. Smaller difference exists among members of different religious traditions.Support for death penalty is highest among white Evangelical Protestant while white Mainline Protestant and white Non-Hispanic Catholic favour it at slightly.Support is lowest among the religious unaffilicated,but a solid majority of group still favours. •SUPPORTERS OF THE DEATH PENALTY Although religious groups in the U.S. have helped to lead the fight against the death penalty, not all religious bodies oppose its use For instance, many evangelical churches, including Southern Baptists, support the death penalty. Many supporters of capital punishment, on the other hand, believe some crimes are so brutal and heinous that execution is the only sentence that can ensure justice. Supporters also point to several recent statistical studies that they say show that capital punishment, even though rarely used, does in fact deter violent crime. Moreover, supporters say, modern technology (such as the use of ballistics and DNA evidence) and the lengthy appeals process in most capital cases make it nearly impossible to mistakenly send an innocent person to the death chamber. Death penalty supporters also point out that a solid majority of the American people have long favored the use of capital punishment. Recent support for the death penalty reached its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when, according to Gallup polls, the number of people in favor of executing convicted murderers climbed as high as 80 percent. Today, 62 percent of the public supports capital punishment for people convicted of murder, according to a 2007 poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
•OPPONENTS OF THE DEATH PENALTY
Opponents' desire to end capital punishment is driven by different arguments, including the belief that the government should not be in the business of taking human life and the concern that the death penalty is inherently unfair because it is disproportionately used on minority and lower-income fellows.Opponent’s believes and claims that its against God’s wheel to kill another human for a crime which he/she committed. On a more practical level, many opponents of the death penalty contend that it does not deter violent crime. And even if it did, they argue, profound flaws in the criminal justice system ensure that the government cannot be confident that each person who goes to the death chamber is actually guilty of the crime for which he or she has been convicted.Indeed, they point out, the development of sophisticated DNA testing has resulted in the release of hundreds of death row inmates in the last 15 years.
MY CONCLUSION
I personally feels that the death penalty is the only way America can reduce it’s rate of it’s crimes,because no one will be willing to do something illegal which is against the law, which will make him/her to be sentenced a death sentence.It will be as an example to those who are planning to committ crimes. Different families will be left sad because they will loose their loved onces,but atleast the person who committed the unwanted crime will never be able to repeat it. If it couldn’t be for death penalty,a person can commit a crime and then he/she will be sent to prison,but after sometime he/she will be out of the prison and then that person will still come back to continue to commit the previous crimes he/she did.The person will get used to be in jail and that will be his/her encouragement to keep on committing crimes,because he/she will be more familiar with prison, So i personally support THE DEATH PENALTY IN AMERICA...‼‼
REFFERENCES
•BOOKS AND PRINTED JOURNALS
1. Hugo.A.B(1998). The Death Penalty In America(reprint illustrated.ed.)Washington: Oxford University Press
2. James.R.Acker(2003). America’s Experiement With Capital Punishment(2nd.ed.)Carolina Academia Press
3. Leighn.B.B(1997)THE DEATH PENALTY IN AMERICA;CURRENT CONTROVERSIES.JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW AND CRIMONOLOGY,(89),543 P.P
4. Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (1965, 2002), Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, by a close advisor
•WEB PAGES
Marin.p(1999)pewerresearchcenter Retrieved august 04,2011 from http://pweresearch.org/pubs/671/the-death-penalty-in-america