Death Penalty Essay: Capital Punishment In The United States

Capital punishment is a large issue today and in the years past. The death penalty occurs when a criminal has been convicted of a criminal offense and is sentenced to execution. This punishment began in ancient Greece under Draco in the 7th century BCE for offenses such as arson, rape, murder, and treason. Although murder is seen as wrong by most religions in this world, some religions justified the use of capital punishment because of the saying that is in the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life” (Hood, 2015). Today, 31 out of 50 states in America apply the death penalty and in these states, there have been 1,492 executions since 1976. The most common method to execute those charged with capital punishment is by the use of lethal injection and

For example, a large deciding factor is if the local government can afford the expenses of completing the death penalty. Some local jurisdictions have the ability to raise enough income for public purposes, whereas some do not (Douglas & Stockstill, 2008). This being said, the use of the death penalty is unfair because it can be applied inconsistently according to if the local jurisdiction can afford to deal with capital charges. For example, two criminals are facing punishment for the same criminal offense but they are in different cities, it is a possibility that one may receive the death penalty and the other may not. Another example of the death penalty being applied unfairly is the fact that only 31 out of the 50 United States states utilize the death penalty (Holloway, 2015). This is unfair in a similar sense as the example used before. A person who is convicted of a capital punishment may receive the death penalty and somebody who has been charged with the same offense in a different state will not be charged with the death