Capital punishment has been in effect since the 1600 's. However, in 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment, which was unconstitutional according to the Eighth amendment. It was public opinion that the current methods of execution, hanging, electrocution, and facing a firing squad, were too slow and painful upon the person to be executed. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed this decision when a cleaner way to bring about death was found in 1976. This cleaner way is death by lethal injection, which is quick and painless if administered right. The death penalty is a good form of justice because only about 250 people a year get the death penalty and they are guilty beyond a doubt and don 't deserve living with the possibility of parole. The sentencing judge or juries are ordered by the Supreme Court to look for specific aggravating and justifying factors in deciding which convicted murderers should be sentenced to death. We can sit here all day and discuss whether or not the death penalty is morally right or morally wrong. I can give you case after case of innocent people who have been brutally and horrifically murdered, sometimes even children, by people who feel no remorse whatsoever for the what they did. These people deserve to die. The United States today uses five different types of execution in the 38 states that use the death penalty. The twelve states that do not use the death penalty are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Of the 38 states that do use the death penalty all of them use Lethal Injection. Ten of the states that use the death penalty use electrocution, those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Four of the states use Lethal Gas, they are, Arizona, California Mississippi, and
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