Capital Punishment is defined as the penalty of death for the commission of a crime. It is usually the punishment sentenced for murder and in some states rape, aircraft hijacking, kidnapping, drug trafficking, espionage, perjury, and treason. The ongoing feud of whether capital punishment should be permitted or not will wage on because this issue is cut with a very double edged sword. Many circumstances make it very difficult to enforce such an absolute punishment. However, just as many circumstances come in to play when dealing with people who have, without a doubt, committed heinous, inhuman crimes.
In 1622, the first legal execution took place in Virginia with the execution of Daniel Frank. Frank was hung for theft. Back then, there were 13 crimes punishable by death, including idolatry and witchcraft. During the seventeenth century, a great number of women executed. Between 1608 and 1708, 24% of the executions performed legally in the early American colonies were women. In the eighteenth century, 48% of the performed executions were African American people. Beside murder, the crime most African Americans were executed for was slave revolt.
Over the next two centuries, the numbers would increase but the percentages would remain about the same. From 1709 to 1808, a total of 1,554 people were recorded as being legally executed. From 1809 to 1908, 6,630 people were legally executed.
Since 1976, 976 convicted murderers have been executed in the United States. Of those executed, 565 (58%) were white and 328 (34%) were black. 10 were female.
Over the years, rules and standards were set for execution but it was never completely prohibited. In 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified and the Eighth Amendment stated that cruel and unusual punishment was illegal. In 1793, Pennsylvania created degrees of murder to help stipulate which offenses should be punishable by death. In 1833, Rhode Island becomes the first state to require private hangings. Through the following years, some states would abolish execution and execution would be turned over to the state rather than local powers. During 1976, the Supreme Court ruled out certain mandatory death penalties, allowing the margins of error to decrease.
The methods of executions have also changed. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, executions were performed by hanging, shooting, burning, pressing, hanging by chains and other cruel ways. Rounding the nineteenth century, executions would begin to be performed by electric chair. In May, 1889, William Kemmler became the second person sentenced to death by electric chair but the first person whose sentence stands. In August of 1890, Kemmler is killed by two currents of electricity. The electric chair would later be corrected and one strong current would kill a person.
The next method used would be asphyxiation gas or more commonly referred to as the gas chamber. Between 1930 and 1980, 945 men and seven women were put to death in the gas chambers. Eleven states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Wyoming) have used lethal gas. Of the thirty eight states with capital punishment, only Arizona, California, Maryland, Missouri and Wyoming still allow for the use of lethal gas.
The most recent and now used method of execution in the United States is lethal injection. The idea of lethal injection had been proposed in 1888 but not approved. In February of 1977, the idea had been revived and approved in the United States. On December 7, 1982, Chris Brooks Jr. became the first person in the United States to be legally executed by lethal injection in Texas. Since then, lethal injection has become America’s main method of execution.
Execution in America is a widely disputed issue and for good reason. Ending someone’s life is an incredibly serious matter. Taking the life of someone is something a great deal of America considers a matter far too great for man to decide. The margin of error is too great and execution is so final.
There have been many cases of “what if” when it comes to executions. Wrongful execution is not unheard of. In the earlier centuries, there is no doubt that racism, sexism and other factors came into play when sentencing people to death. The doubts of guiltiness are record as far back as the mid 1900’s.
James Adams, a black man, was convicted in1974 of first-degree murder, sentenced to death, and executed in 1984 in Florida. “Witnesses located Adams' car at the time of the crime at the home of the victim, a white rancher. Some of the victim's jewelry was found in the car trunk. Adams maintained his innocence, claiming that he had loaned the car to his girlfriend. A witness identified Adams as driving the car away from the victim's home shortly after the crime. This witness, however, was driving a large truck in the direction opposite to that of Adams' car, and probably could not have had a good look at the driver. It was later discovered that this witness was angry with Adams for allegedly dating his wife. A second witness heard a voice inside the victim's home at the time of the crime and saw someone fleeing. He stated this voice was a woman's; the day after the crime he stated that the fleeing person was positively not Adams. More importantly, a hair sample found clutched in the victim's hand, which in all likelihood had come from the assailant, did not mach Adams' hair. Much of this exculpatory information was not discovered until the case was examined by a skilled investigator a month before Adams' execution. Governor Graham, however, refused to grant even a short stay so that these questions could be resolved.” (This was taken from a website presenting cases of wrongful convictions and executions.)
Cases like Adams’ are the major reason for the push for execution to be outlawed. This was a blatant case of racism on behalf of Governor Graham. There are other cases where witness and victims tell untruths for racist reasons, knowing the accused won’t stand a chance. What is worse is that in this day and age, there are still cases of possible wrongful execution.

Cameron Willingham was convicted in 1992 and executed in 2004 in Texas for intentionally starting a fire that killed three children in 1991. This except is taken from an article that was published in the Chicago Tribune.
Arson expert Gerald Hurst said, "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire." Former Louisiana State University fire instructor Kendall Ryland added, "[It] made me sick to think this guy was executed based on this investigation.... They executed this guy and they've just got no idea - at least not scientifically - if he set the fire, or if the fire was even intentionally set."
Willingham was convicted of capital murder after arson investigators concluded that 20 indicators of arson led them to believe that an accelerant had been used to set three separate fires inside his home. Among the only other evidence presented by prosecutors during the trial was testimony from jailhouse snitch Johnny E. Webb, a drug addict on psychiatric medication, who claimed Willingham had confessed to him in the county jail.
Some of the jurors who convicted Willingham were troubled when told of the new case review. Juror Dorinda Brokofsky asked, "Did anybody know about this prior to his execution? Now I will have to live with this for the rest of my life. Maybe this man was innocent." Prior to the execution, Willingham's defense attorneys presented expert testimony regarding the new arson investigation to the state's highest court, as well as to Texas Governor Rick Perry. No relief was granted and Willingham was executed on February 17, 2004. Coincidentally, less than a year after Willingham's execution, arson evidence presented by some of the same experts who had appealed for relief in Willingham's case helped free Ernest Willis from Texas's death row. The experts noted that the evidence in the Willingham case was nearly identical to the evidence used to exonerate Willis.

It’s a scary thought that innocent men and women are being killed because of the incompetence of another. Reasons like these are why the lives of people should not be put in the hands of other people. However, there are those atrocious and unspeakable acts that make death seem too good for a person.
Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968–June 11, 2001), considered by the FBI an American domestic terrorist, was executed for his part in the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing. Hundreds were injured and 167 men, women and children died when a truck loaded with improvised explosives was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building as federal offices began business for the day. Later a 168th victim died when a huge chunk of concrete crushed a rescue worker. (Taken from Wikipedia.com)
McVeigh says he detonated the federal building because he disagreed with the actions of the U.S Government involving the killing of innocent children. This is the same man who killed nineteen children and called them “collateral damage” as well as showing no remorse for his actions. He said nothing when he was to be executed. “McVeigh did not make a verbal statement before the execution. But in a handwritten statement, McVeigh quoted a section of the poem ‘Invictus,’ which reads in part ‘I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.’” (Posted on CNN.com)
These double standards make it impossible for a final decision to be reached about the validity of capital punishment. The life of a man should not be taken in to the hands of another, especially when the accused may not be guilty. Too many personal factors must be considered when dealing with the sensitive subject. However, do the people who have no regard for human life, that massacre and devastate lives, cold-blooded and unfeelingly deserve life after they have destroyed so many? This question has proved to be more complex and unanswerable than it sounds. Should the answer of this question lie in the hands of men? No, and that is why this issue will remain disputed everlastingly.

Bibliography
• History of Capital Punishment- http://www.helsinki.fi/~tuschano/cp/
• The Electric Chair- http://www.geocities.com/trctl11/chair.html
• Capital Punishment Timeline-
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/timeline.htm
• Death Penalty Information Center-http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
• Before the Needles- http://users.bestweb.net/~rg/execution/
• History of the Gas Chamber- http://www.geocities.com/trctl11/gascham.html
• Timothy McVeigh- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh
• Twenty-five years of Executions and Twenty-Five Executions with Reasonable Doubts: A Brief Analysis of Some post-Gregg v. Georgia Executions
by Karl Keys
http://capitaldefenseweekly.com/25casesdraft.html

• McVeigh execution: A 'completion of justice'- http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/06/11/mcveigh.02/index.html

Registered Members, login
Join now, it's free

Property of EssaySwap.com