Death Penalty

Since the beginning of law and order the death penalty has been a very controversial topic that has divided not only governments and nations but families and municipalities as well. The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is the most severe penalty that can be imposed upon a person in the name of justice, and the moral implications of such a penalty have been debated from the religious pulpit to the campaign trail. However, the simple fact remains: the death penalty justly punishes those who have committed crimes so abhorrent that they merit death. Politicians view the death penalty as either a wrong needing to be corrected or as a necessary punishment in which it is and as a deterrent for those who commit heinous acts against society. No matter what the stance is that an individual supports, the issue can be supported either by precedent or by the different political atmospheres created by individualized preferences of different regions of the nation.

The death penalty is not a new idea amongst civilized societies, including the new and relatively upstart American culture. Governments both locally and internationally have been using the death penalty for hundreds of years, from the Babylonians in 1792 B.C. in which Hammurabi’s Code demanded the simple doctrine of “an eye for an eye” up through the current era. In fact, federal and state governments have been using the death penalty inside the United States throughout the country’s existence, beginning with Thomas Bird of Maine who was executed on June 25, 1790 for murder.

State governments have the same power to exercise capital punishment as the federal government, and actually, due to the long-standing national practice of federalism, state governments have more death penalty cases than the federal government. Federalism gives state government’s authority similar to that of the federal government with the idea that the states are supreme in their own spheres and can exercise judgments...