Capital Punishment
There has been many controversies in the history of the United States, ranging from abortion to gun control, but capital punishment has been one of the most hotly contested issues in recent decades. Capital punishment is the legal infliction of the death penalty on persons convicted of a crime (Cox). It is not intended to inflict any physical pain or any torture; it is only another form of punishment. ... Capital punishment is a method of retributive punishment as old as civilization itself. ... Many ancient societies accepted the idea that certain crimes deserved capital punishment. ... This state abolished the mandatory death penalty and authorized the option of sentencing a capital offender to life imprisonment rather than to death. ... These methods of execution compared to those of the past are not meant for torture, but meant for punishment for the crime. For the past decades capital punishment has been one of the most hotly contested political issues in America. ... Capital punishment is a legal, practical, philosophical, social, political, and moral question. The notion of deterrence has been at the very center of the practical debate over the question of capital punishment. ... Retentionists have long asserted the deterrent power of capital punishment as an obvious fact. ... Still, abolitionists (people against capital punishment) believe that deterrence is little more than an assumption-and a naive assumption at that. Abolitionists claim that capital punishment does not deter murderers from killing or killing again. ... Most retentionists (people for capital punishment) argue that none of this statistical evidence proves that capital punishment does not deter potential criminals. ... They point out that the murder rate in any given state depends on many things besides whether or not that state has capital punishment. ... Some people are frightened of this possibility enough to be convinced that capital punishment should be abolished. ... There is legal assistance provided and an automatic appeal for persons convicted of capital crimes. ... Capital punishment saves lives as well as takes them. ... A study of the Texas criminal system estimated the cost of appealing capital murder at $2,316,655. ... "Let the punishment fit the crime" is its secondary counterpart (Cox). ... Supporters of capital punishment say that society has the right to kill in defense of its members, just as an individual has the right to kill in self defense for his or her own personal safety. ... In the United States, the main objection to capital punishment has been that it was always used unfairly, in at least three major ways. ... This data shows how the death penalty can discriminate and be used on certain races rather than equally as punishment for severe crimes.