Death Penalty Cruel And Unusual Punishment Essay

Is the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment? In my opinion, no, I do not believe it to be cruel and unusual punishment. But, not everyone believes the way I do. “As of March 21, 2011, 36 jurisdictions have capital punishment statutes; 17 jurisdictions do not have capital punishment statutes” (Bohm & Haley, 2014, p. 339). In my opinion, it cost the tax payers so much more for someone to sit around on a death sentence then it does to just inflict the punishment. They get 3 meals a day, clothing, tv, medical care, and housing which is more than most people can afford that are living pay check to pay check. I know homeless people that will commit a crime (just for these benefits) before winter comes. So why should tax payers support someone until the day he or she dies because they committed a horrendous crime and was sentenced to death.

Death is not unnecessary cruelty or torture. We all know we are going to die, we just do not know when. So, to me it does not fit. Now, burning at the stake, death by a thousand cuts, sawing, crucifixion, boiling, the Catherine wheel, impalement, flaying, rat torture, brazen bull, and the iron maiden were cruel and unusual punishments. Granted these punishments came from a time when things were “an eye for an eye”, but our criminal justice system is not like that and does not honor the “like for a like” mentality. The death penalty has come a long way from what it was to what it is. “We have moved progressively from burning at the stake and boiling in oil, to hanging, electrocution, gassing, and finally to today's quiet antiseptics of lethal injection, a procedure so painless even President Reagan approvingly said it was just like falling asleep” (Gerber, 2004). Granted today, the deaths are not held in the town square and are not publicly viewed anymore, but criminals still