Death Penalty and Morality

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DEATH PENALT AND MORALITY

Capital Punishment is the legal infliction of the

death penalty. In the United States capital

punishment is legal in thirty-nine of the fifty

states. Beginning in 1973, prison populations began

an inevitable growth. There were 204,211 inmates in

1973, and by 1977 the number of prisoners had grown to

285,456, which later grew to 315,974 in 1980. By

1976, it was clear that the death penalty had to be

reinstated. America's twenty-one year experiment with

capital punishment has resulted in a total of 392

executions, seventy eight of which took place in 1996

alone. Of these only thirty-four were federal cases,

out of which thirty two were male and only two were

female.

Every year about 15,000 killers are charged and only

about 300 wind up on death row. The death row

population is constantly increasing. It is now more

than 3,000. Because of constant appeals, it takes a

person on death row typically between five to eight

years to finally get executed.

To kill all the

prisoners on death row, it is estimated that it would

take two executions a day for seven years.

Crimes such as aiding in suicide, causing a boat

collision resulting in death, forced marriage,

procuring an abortion resulting in the death of the

mother, espionage, castrating another, rape, homicide,

child molesting resulting in death and conspiracy to

kidnap for ransom among many others are, in some

states, crimes that are punishable by death. What the

law permits, however, is not always used by the courts

or the executive authorities. Most executions are a

result of a murder or rape, and a small number for

robbery, kidnapping, burglary, aggravated assault and

espionage.

In the US, the death penalty is currently authorized

in one of five ways: hanging, which has been the...