Death Penalty

7 Pages 1644 Words

You can only say its cruel punishment if it excesses the crime. When someone is executed it is done in a painless manner. You can’t say this for their victims, many of them suffered some kind of pain or fear before their death. I believe that when they commit such a crime they are giving up all their human rights. Just as they had taken all the rights from their victims.
The eighth amendment in the constitution states, “ Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.” What this means is that the punishment should fit the crime. For example if someone was to rob a convenient store, they shouldn’t be sentenced to the death penalty. The death penalty also known as capital punishment is a controversial issue in every state, since every state has a different stance on capital punishment.
Capital punishment has been around since the 17th century starting with England, which prescribed death for 14 offenses, but the American colonies impose the death sentence for fewer crimes. Then in 1636 the Massachusetts Bay Colony lists 13 crimes punishable by death, including adultery and witchcraft. In Pennsylvania under the William Penn Great Act, the death penalty is prescribed only for murder and treason. On august 6, 1890 murderer William Kemmler is the first person executed in the electric chair, at New York’s Auburn prison. The chair is later installed at Sing Sing prison. In the 1930’s executions reach an all-time peak, averaging 167 per year. The 1970’s were an eventful decade for capital punishment, which saw the death penalty invalidated then reinstated. In 1977 Oklahoma becomes the first state to adopt lethal injection as their form of the death sentence. 1986 brought about another issue with the death penalty, in a Supreme Court case Ford V. Wainwright they bared executing insane persons, but in 1989 the Supreme Court ruled that executing mentally retarded ...