During the past three decades the issue of capital punishment has been very controversial in the United States. During 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was a form of cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment. However, this decision did not last long; in July 1975 the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment did not violate any parts of the Constitution. The decision was reversed when new methods of execution were introduced

and executions started again. Since then 180 inmates have been executed.

The latest method of executing inmates on death roll has been lethal injection. It is not considered cruel and unusual punishment by many people because of the fact that it does not cause struggles or harm the body like hangings, firing squads, gas chambers, or electrocutions. This method of executing is still barbaric, cruel and unusual. At the 1988 execution of Raymond Landry officials there had to repeatedly puncture him because he had very small veins. In addition to this execution, there have been many others like it where they have repeatedly punctured the inmate because of bad-veins or them being drug addicts. In one case the inmate actually helped to find a suitable vein. According to the many police officers who have witnessed this form of execution say is should be abolished because they do not like having to watch it and because they feel that it does not deter crime.

Another argument that is in favor of capital punishment would be saying that it is more humane that life imprisonment because it is quick and instantaneous. They feel that making the inmate suffer by rotting in jail for the rest of his life is more torturous and inhumane than execution.

One reason that some people for capital punishment take their position is because they feel that capital punishment deters crime. They feel that some of the murderers in the United States would not kill if they knew the consequences of doing so. In my opinion, capital punishment does not deter crime. People who are in the business of killing make sure they do not get caught; they take a lot of time creating plans to make sure that they get away. A person who gets caught for killing another individual is usually someone who did not plan on murdering in the first place. The murders that are not planned go into the crimes of passion group. Crimes of passion are defined as unlawful acts of an individual, which are unplanned and erupt as a result of rage or anger. These actions usually originate from drunkenness or a short-term loss of logic thinking which can be identified as anger. Capital punishment seems as though it should realistically deter crime, but the problem is that most murders are unplanned and are not a result of judgment or common sense.

Another method of execution is the gas chamber; with this process a prisoner is put in a closed chamber and forced to i

Some topics in this essay:
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