Supporting_a_Position

Assignment: Supporting a Position One of the most controversial arguments that are debated in the United States in “Capital Punishment” also known as the death penalty. Some believe the death penalty should be abolished while others believe the death penalty should remain an option. Although there are things that should be changed when dealing with the death penalty case, but I do not think it should be completely discontinued. The death penalty should be administered to those who commit heinous crimes, whether it involves murder or not (Lopez, Camilla p.1). What is capital punishment' The dictionary defines capital punishment as a noun that means putting a person to death. At the end of 2003 there were 3374 inmates at 37 state and federal prisons who were on death row. That number was a 188 decrease from the statistics in 2002. (Lacey, Bonner) Although the number of people on the death penalty decreased the number of females on death row increased. Of the 3374 prisoners on sentenced to the death penalty fifty-six percent were white, forty-two percent were black, and the remaining two percent were of other races. One can look at the judicial history and tell that just because someone is sentenced to the death penalty it does not mean it actually happens. There have been many problems in the structure of the death penalty, one of those problems with the death penalty is high-priced because a prisoner can be sent to death row, but he or she can have several appeals, awaiting a retrial due to new evidence, both can be a slow, costly and lengthy process. Over the years, my opinion and thoughts on the death penalty has increased, usually according to how horrendous the crime that was committed or how emotional I was that day. I am not an advocate of killing by any means, but I've learned that in order to better protect society from these horrible crimes that are being committed you may have to go to an extreme. In some cases 'extreme' can be bad, but when talking about the death penalty, I think this is one of the best extremes there is. Work Cited Lopez, Camilla M. "Pro Death Penalty." Online Posting. April 28, 2000. January 29, 2003. Bonner, Raymond and Lacey, Marc. “Death Penalty Statistics.”      New York Times. 12 September 2000