Reference no: EM131574178

Capital punishment is defined as "inflicting deadly injury as punishment for criminal conduct"(pg 200). Since it was re-instated in1976, there have been 1,321 people executed in the United States. Of the people put on death row, 142 people have been exonerated because it was proven that there were innocent. In order to sentence a person to death, the jury has to find aggravating circumstances and mitigating circumstances. Aggravating circumstances are needed to justify the death sentence and mitigating circumstances are needed to "weigh against the imposition of the death penalty" (pg 209). Currently there are 31 states who have legalized capital punishment. Since the Gregg decision in 1976, Texas has had the most executions that total 542. The states with the least amount are Colorado, Connecticut, New Mexico, and Wyoming which all have one. The most common way people are put to death is with lethal injection. This is a combination of 3 different drugs. One of the medications is a sedative, another is a muscle relaxer, and the last medication is what causes the inmate to suffer cardiac arrest.

Murder is the only offense where the death penalty is appropriate. There have been people on death row for things like rape of a minor but those convictions were found to be unconstitutional there death was not a result of the crime. An example of this is the case Kennedy V. Louisiana. In this case, Patrick Kennedy was sentenced to death after being found guilty of raping his step-daughter. His conviction was overturned on the basis that the punishment did not fit the crime. Since he did not kill his step-daughter, they found that the death penalty was too extreme. I think Capital punishment is a question of legality in the public's opinion. I think the decision should be based on the type and nature of the offense. I do not think that decisions like this should be made based off of emotions. If it was based off emotions then I would think that everyone would be charged with the death sentence.