The Death Penalty, also know as Capital Punishment is a plan to take a human life by a government for a crime committed by a legally convicted felon. Today I will talk about the Death Penalty and be supporting it. I will talk about statistics, crimes that the death penalty punishes, types of execution, the penalty in other countries, and my opinion.
The death penalty has not always been practiced in the U.S, although since colonial times there are about 13,000 people who have been legally executed. During the depression era there was a massive increase in executions, but was followed by a decrease in the 50s and 60s. There were no executions in the U.S from 1967to1976. Then in 1972 the Supreme Court got rid of the death penalty, hundreds of inmates that were on death row were sentenced to life in prison. In 1976 the Supreme Court found the death penalty to be constitutional and brought it back. From 1976 to June 3, 2009 1167 felons were put to death. The vast majority of democratic countries in Europe and Latin America have abolished the death penalty over the last fifty years, but the U.S and most of Asia, and most all totalitarian governments retain it. According to Amnesty International’s 2008 annual report 2,390 felons were executed in 25 countries around the world and 8,864 people were sentenced in 52 countries around the world. In that report China is said to have executed 1718 felons which is the most and the U.S is said to have executed 37 criminals. Capital Punishment in the U.S is officially sanctioned by 34 states and the government. Each state has there own rules regarding the death penalty. From 1976 to October 2009, 1177 felons were executed in the U.S with Texas doing 38% of the executions which is 442 felons. Missouri executed 67.
Certain crimes that result in the death penalty are, the most common is murder of some kind, and either aggravated murder or first degree murder. Other one that are not as common are espionage, aircraft hijacking,...