The Death Penaly Essay, Research Paper

The Death Penalty

The death penalty: what does it do? Is it right or wrong? Why? If the death penalty is not familiar to someone, these are some of the questions someone may have about the subject. Fortunately, the death penalty still exists. It was reinstated in the United States in 1976. Since then, the legal killings, which include electrocution, lethal injection, and firing squads, have been an American controversy. The death penalty, in fact, should remain in effect and set an example for those monsters that are out in this world rapping and killing innocent citizens.

The earliest historical record contain evidence of capital punishment. It was mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi (1750 BC). The Bible prescribed death as a penalty for more than 30 different crimes, ranging from murder (Exodus 21:12) to fornication (Deuteronomy 22:13) (Bedau).

In the United States, there are different methods of execution. Execution by lethal injection involves the continuous intravenous injection of a lethal quantity of a short-acting barbiturate in combination with a chemical paralytic agent. Electrocution produces visibly destructive effects as the body s internal organs are burned; the prisoner often leaps forward against the restraining straps when the switch is thrown. Prisoners are restrained in hermetically sealed steel gas chamber below which is a pan. Upon a signal, the executioner opens a valve, flowing hydrochloric acid into the pan. On a second signal, about eight ounces of potassium cyanide crystals are dropped mechanically into the acid-producing hydrocyanic gas, which destroys the ability of blood hemoglobin to perform (Sandholzer).

Many people believe that all of these methods are cruel and wrong. But what gives the killers the right to kill? The death penalty is totally justified, for the fact that life imprisonment can be a rewarding experience for some killers. Americans are paying taxes so they can eat and sleep in a warm bed and get food every day. In America there are thousands of people who live on the streets in dumpsters who would never kill a bug. These homeless people are living worse than the killers themselves.

Some death penalty opponents have the idea of rehabilitating. How can you rehabilitate a person like Albert Finch, who is believed to have molested at least 100 children and claims more like 400. He is believed to have killed between 7-10 children and at least one Grace Budd who was chopped up and eaten. Then he wrote to her mother telling her about it. They had to electrocute him twice in the chair because he was into self-torture and had 29 needles in his body, which short-circuited the chair. This was not a man to be rehabilitated; this was a man to be killed. We should kill all the people who killed other people but of course the justice system has to make sure that the criminal is 1000% guilty. People have to look into the death penalty like Jim, who on the Internet service on Tuesday, 24 Nov-98 writes:

I look in awe at the insensitive comments made by ignorant people against the death penalty. Oh sure, they ll put all their energy into trying to defend criminal from punishment, instead of joining a victims group and helping those in need, pushing for tougher laws and fighting against the release of violent criminals. But no! They ll just sit at their computers and parrot the same tired words over and over about why they feel capital punishment is cruel and unusual punishment . To all DP opponents, be careful what you wish for, because you could someday be John Walsh, whose 6yr. Old son Adam was kidnapped and brutally murdered by a vicious thug. Or you might end up like Marc Klass, the father of Polly, the 12yr. old girl brutally murdered by Richard Allen Davis. And I just wonder how you guys would feel then about fairness and justice. Think it won t happen to you, eh???? It CAN happen you! And I honestly hope that as many of you jerks as possible have the misfortune of losing a dearly loved one to violence. And when it happens, you ll REMEMBER what I said and how you used to defend the kind of monster who has destroyed your life forever! Good luck guys! (Jim)

Capital punishment should be kept into consideration especially when dealing with people like Timothy McVeigh, who was charged with the Oklahoma City Bombing. People wonder why so many people are for the death penalty. If you are a death penalty opponent, all I have to say is what would you do if a person decides to harm a loved one? Would you forgive him/her? Or would you wish they got a serious punishment such as the death penalty.

Works Cited

Bedau, Hugo A. ed. Capital Punishment. CD-ROM Microsoft Encarta 98.

Encylopedia. 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation.

Jim. The Pro-Death Penalty/Justice Now!! Message Board. 24-Nov-98.

(http://www.insidetheweb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi?acct=mb29120&MyNum=911897264&P=No.) (11-30-98).

Sandholzer, Kuno. Methods of Execution.

(http://members.magnet.at/k.sand/amnesty/usa/methods.html). (11-30-98)