Capital_Punishment

Capital Punishment Capital Punishment in the United States Capital punishment is the legal infliction of the death penalty on persons convicted of a crime.(Cox 12) It is not intended to inflict any physical pain or any torture; however, it is a severe form of corporal punishment. It is unchangeable because it removes those punished from society permanently, instead of the alternative of life-long imprisonment. The death penalty has been imposed throughout history for many crimes, ranging from blasphemy and treason to petty theft and murder. Although the death penalty was widely accepted throughout the early United States, not everyone approved of it. In the late-eighteen century, resistance to the death penalty gathered enough strength to lead to important restrictions on the use of the death penalty in several northern states, while Michigan, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island abandoned the practice altogether. (Kronenwetter 15) In 1794, Pennsylvania adopted a law to distinguish the degrees of murder, and only used the death penalty for premeditated first-degree murder. In 1846, Louisiana abolished the mandatory death penalty and authorized the option of sentencing a capital offender to life imprisonment rather than to death. Amendments were made to reflect the changes in the society's views death, penalty, punishment, capital, murder, crime, people, execution, states, rate, life, society, because, united, state, one, innocent, crimes, sentenced, person, never, legal, killing, court, costs, been, again, take, retentionists, out, murders, just, enough, abolitionists, years, whether, ways, way, today, system, supporters, rights, punishments, prison, persons, past, over, offense, must, murderers