Capital Punishment Essay: The Death Penalty In The United States

This topic is very emotional and disputed. The death penalty is considered capital punishment and is flawed throughout the judicial system. It is an authorized practice by the government where a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. Historically, most affiliated members of the U.S. Marshalls Service administered all federal executions. Capital punishment came to a stop in 1972 after the Furman v. Georgia decision. The death penalty was then brought back in 1976 after the Gregg v. Georgia decision. Pre-Furman executions authorized by the federal government was normally done within the prison system of the state where the crime was committed. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 reinstated the death penalty under the federal

The United States is one of the countries that allow it but is only legal in thirty-eight states. As of 2016 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his role in the Boston Marathon bombing and Dylann Roof in 2016 for his role in the Charleston church shooting where he killed nine people, has landed these two men on federal death row. As of 2017, there are 61 offenders on federal death row. Most are held at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. The only woman on death row as of 2017 is Lisa M. Montgomery and she is being held at the Federal Medical Center. Statistics show that sixty percent of Americans support the death penalty, while twenty-nine percent of Americans don’t. Many families feel an emotional response to the loss of a loved one due to the death penalty. Many people see this punishment as an “eye for an eye”, for example, if you kill someone you deserve to be killed too. Some religions and organizations feel that forgiving someone is a better path to take rather than seeking revenge. The death penalty is viewed as a deterrent to crime and is a big part of social justice in society

Wrongful convictions are a major problem due to official misconduct and perjury, false accusation, false or misleading forensic evidence, inadequate legal defense, false or fabricated confessions, or a mistaken eyewitness identification. As of 2017, there have been 159 exonerations in 27 different States. “From 1973-1999, there was an average of 3.03 exonerations per year. From 2000-2013, there has been an average of 4.29 exonerations per year.” A mistaken eyewitness identification had a 28-year-old father, Dean Cage locked up for 14 years. The inadequate legal defense has Lee Day incarcerated for 12 years. Due to false and misleading forensic evidence, James Kluppelberg served 25 years in prison. These people lost entirely too many years of their life they can’t ever get back, due to false information or