The history of the death penalty goes back nearly 4,000 years, and it is only

relatively recently that its use has been curtailed. Changes in the law, research on
sentencing patterns, monitoring by civil rights groups, and U.S. Supreme Court
decisions have produced a system whose goal is justice tempered by mercy. In
1967, all executions were suspended by Federal courts until constitutional issues
relating to capital punishment could be resolved. By 1976, most states had revised
their statutes to conform to Supreme Court guidelines, and capital punishment was
reinstated in 37 States. Major arguments against the death penalty focus on its
inhumaneness, lack of deterrent effect, continuing racial and economic biases, and
irreversibility. Proponents argue that it represents a just retribution for certain
crimes, deters crime, protects society, and preserves the moral order. Capital
punishment refers to the process of sentencing convicted offenders to death for the
most serious crimes (capital crimes) and carrying out that sentence. The specific
offenses and circumstances that determine if a crime (usually murder) is eligible
for a death sentence are defined by statute and are prescribed by Congress or any
state legislature. There are many compelling reasons for people to oppose the death
penalty, not the least of which are religious, moral, and other views.

Nonetheless, a majority of Americans support the death sentence in proper

instances and believe that despite all its imperfections , it is constitutional.
Capital punishment is currently authorized in 27 states, by the federal government
and the U.S. The Nebraska Legislature also abolished capital punishment in 2015,
but it was reinstated by a statewide vote in 2016.
The death penalty for people convicted of murder continues to draw support from a
majority of Americans despite widespread doubts about its administration, fairness
and whether it deters serious crimes.
More Americans favor than oppose the death penalty: 60% of U.S. adults favor the
death penalty for people convicted of murder, including 27% who strongly favor it.
About four-in-ten (39%)
support for the death penalty is strongly associated with a belief that when
someone commits murder, the death penalty is morally justified. Among the public
overall, 64% say the death penalty is morally justified in cases of murder, while
33% say it is not justified. An overwhelming share of death penalty supporters
(90%) say it is morally justified under such circumstances, compared with 25% of
death penalty opponents.
Republicans and Democrats also differ over whether the death penalty is morally
justified, whether it acts as a deterrent to serious crime and whether adequate
safeguards exist to ensure that no innocent person is put to death. Republicans are
29 percentage points more likely than Democrats to say the death penalty is
morally justified, 28 points more likely to say it deters serious crimes, and 19
points more likely to say that adequate safeguards exist. But the widest partisan
divide – wider than differences in opinions about the death penalty itself – is over
whether White people and Black people are equally likely to be sentenced to the
death penalty for committing similar crimes.
About seven-in-ten Republicans (72%) say that White people and Black people are
equally likely to be sentenced to death for the same types of crimes. Nobody is in
favor of racist prosecutors, bad judges or incompetent defense attorneys. If
problems arise in particular cases, they should be corrected—and often are.
While conservative Republicans are more likely to express support for the death
penalty than moderate and liberal Republicans, clear majorities of both groups
favor the death penalty (82% of conservative Republicans and 68% of moderate
and liberal Republicans).
Let’s say that A drug cartel member who murders a rival cartel member faces life
in prison without parole. What if he murders two, three, or 12 people? Or the
victim is a child or multiple children? What if the murder was preceded by torture
or rape? How about a serial killer? Or a terrorist who kills dozens, hundreds or
thousands?
The repeal of the death penalty treats all murders as the same. Once a person
commits a single act of murder, each additional murder is a freebie.
I will close my argument with this quote from :The Los Angeles Airport Peace
Officers Association stated the following in an article on its website titled
“Reform, Don’t Repeal, the Death Penalty” (accessed Mar. 10, 2017):
“[G]iving up on the death penalty would mean giving up on justice for crime
victims and their families. The prisoners currently on California’s death row have
murdered more than 1,000 people. Of those, 229 were children, 43 were peace
officers, and 294 of the victims were sexually assaulted and tortured. Having a
functional death penalty law will help us protect the public from society’s worst
criminals and bring some measure of closure to the families whose loved ones
were cruelly taken from them.”