Death Penalty; Right or Wrong?

The death penalty has been an issue that has continually caused tension in today’s society. The main discussion over this is whether or not the death penalty serves as a valid and justified form of punishment. We have reached the point where if the topic is brought up, extremists on both sides immediately begin to argue the matter. One side says increase in crime rate, the other says failure to discourage crime; one says failure to rehabilitate, the other says it saves lives; one says justice and retribution, the other says revenge. As a society we know that crime is a major part of our lives, and we are all aware that something must be done about it. The only problem now is coming together and finding common ground as to how we solve it. The death penalty has been applied by many parts of the world, from the ancient times of Babylon to present day America. More than an estimated 15, 269 Americans have been executed since the inception of the death penalty dating back to colonial times. History has shown us that capital punishment, whose definition is the use of death as a legally sanctioned punishment, is a very efficient and acceptable means of reducing crime.
Is the death penalty really the best choice?
Many criminologists have come to the conclusion that when an execution is publicized more murders occur. Many begin to happen days or even a few weeks after the event. A great example of this is the Lindbergh kidnapping. A reporter called it “the greatest story since the Resurrection.” It was one of the most crucial and most public involved cases in the twenty-first century. “Journalist H. L. Mencken called the trial of Richard Hauptmann, the accused kidnapper of the baby of aviator Charles Lindbergh, "the greatest story since the Resurrection." While Mencken's description is doubtless an exaggeration, measured by the public interest it generated, the Hauptmann trial stands with the O. J. Simpson and Scopes trials as among the most famous trials of the twentieth