Capital_Punishment

Capital Punishment The leaders of our country use capital punishment as a way of trying to deter people from committing violent crimes, (Cauthen 4) but is it a violation of the Eight Amendment' The Eight Amendment says that "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted" (Constitution). The term capital comes from earlier times when prisoners had their "capitals" (their heads) severed from their bodies (Religious 5). "Punishments that arise out of a thirst for vengeance are inhumane, counterproductive and unnecessary" (Endres). Although a criminal should obviously have to pay the consequences for taking someone's life, the concept of capital punishment can not be justified due to its archaic inhumanity. "The first execution in the territory now know as the United States of America was of Daniel Frank, (who was) put to death in 1622 in the colony of Virginia for the crime of theft" (Justice Center 1). In Georgia it was a fact that if you were a black person who had killed a white person, you were seven times more likely to be sentenced to the death penalty then if you were a white person who has killed a black death, punishment, capital, people, penalty, life, justice, endres, cruel, because, unusual, person, way, religious, tolerance, should, out, one, execution, executed, about, prisoners, prisoner, electric, crimes, court, committed, chair, being, been, ask, states, since, sentenced, sense