The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is an execution used as a punishment on someone convicted of a capital crime. There are several ways in which these executions have been or are being made. The most common is the lethal injection, others being electrocution, hanging, lethal gas, gas chamber, and/ or the firing squad under limited circumstances. The death penalty was first used in the U.S. in colonial times therefore leading to more than 900 executions since the year of 1976 in the U.S., with the state of Texas leading the nation (“At Issue”). There are many pros and cons that are discussed about this topic that are justifiable depending on the different points of view. Some people believe that the death …show more content…
Capital punishment is embedded on an offender in case or a murder, drug trafficking, rape of a minor, treason, espionage, and few others. There are many questions that can be asked concerning this issue. Some are: Does it affect your religion? Do you believe it deters crime? Is the cost of the death penalty worth it? Is it humane? Noted in interviewing on these questions, most of the people say that the death penalty does not deter crime, that it is against their religion, it is a humane way to kill people, and that the cost is not worth it. For the most part the people whom were interviewed believe that the offenders who have committed capital crimes should just be put in jail for life instead of being put on the death …show more content…
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O 'Connor said in a speech in 2001 to a group of women lawyers in Minnesota "the system may well be allowing some innocent defendants to be executed” (“Innocence”). It has been said that if capital punishment disappears in the United States it won’t be because voters and politicians no longer want to execute the guilty (Douthat 7). It will be because they 're afraid of executing the innocent (Douthat 7). "A government that cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy of its proceedings should not take to itself the power of taking a human life," said Senator Martin Looney, referring to the Tillman case (Williams 55-56). While interviewing certain people about this issue there was a statement made by a person that really caught my attention she said “...The death penalty should not be a closure to a family because another person is being killed, when God should be the one making that decision. Remember, two wrongs don’t make a