Why the US needs the Death Penalty

Essay by monsterballs22College, UndergraduateB, May 2008

download word file, 11 pages 5.0

The death penalty is the most severe punishment a convicted criminal can receive. This penalty is the act of the law putting the criminal to death by lethal injection as punishment for the crime he or she committed (Berns 2). The death penalty does not exist in many civilized countries. In today's society the United States of America is one of the few that resort to capital punishment for certain criminal offenses. The death penalty is most commonly used for criminals who have committed a premeditated murder. The saying, an eye for an eye has been referred to in the bible, and people have been known to use it situations of jealously, love, and lust. On a different level, some people have interpreted this saying, as it is right to execute people who have murdered others (Berns 2). The big controversial issue today is weather the death penalties works and if it is morally correct.

There are many strong arguments that defend both sides of the spectrum. The stronger argument concerning the death penalty is pro- death penalty. The amount of lives saved by executing murderers far exceeds the people who are put to death by wrongfully convicted criminals. The law has every right to execute a murderer who has killed an innocent person.

The history of the death penalty was popular in the westernized world until a major decline in the 19th century. There are several main ways of people who have been executed throughout history. Hanging was when a blindfolded victim stands on a trap door with a rope around his or her neck. When the trap door opens the victim is suspended in mid air, as the rope either severs the spinal cord and neck or makes it impossible for the victim to breath and they suffocate...