Works Cited
www.dictionary.com
www.deathpenalty.org
www.nodeathpenalty.org
http://find.galegroup.com?ovrc/retrieve
“Harry Henderson” Library in a Book Capital Punishment Third Edition
“Joseph A. Melusky and Keith A. Pesto” Americas Freedoms Cruel and Unusual Punishment
The dawn of the 21st century brought on the debates of old but new problems not face by previous generations. Including the rising healthcare debate, or the never ending war on cancer, and the deterioration of American ethics and morals. While the other two are primarily an issue only in America, the deterioration of American ethics and morals are worldwide issues. Americans do a lot of questionable things and their opinion on the death penalty is one of the morals in question. How do Americans really perceive human life? What value does it have to someone who can simply decide to kill by a “yes” or “no” vote?
The death penalty is the punishment of death for a crime committed against a person of immense proportions “www.dictionary.com”. (The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the Codes of King Hammaurubi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. The death penalty was also part of the Fourteenth Century B.C’s Hittite Code: the Seventh Century B.C.’s Draco Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for every crime committed; and in the Fifth Century B.C.’s Roman law of the Twelve Tablets) “Cruel and Unusual Punishment”.
Death sentences were to be carried out by such means as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. All deemed cruel and unusual punishment by the United States Government. It is frowned upon by plenty of members of government and society as a general public. This form is punishment that our government enforces does not make any nations safer; instead it increases the statistics of the number of people who have been murdered....