The Failure of Capital Punishment in the United States
The founders of the United States admired the Roman Republic. Many aspects of the United States government such as two houses of government were based on the ideals of the Roman Republic. Some Americans think that means capital punishment is constitutional. Back in the days of the Roman Republic, there were no prisons for major crimes, only for small crimes like debt. Anyone found guilty of a major crime was either exiled or executed. (Morris; 1998.) However, modern America is not the Roman Republic. America has a complex prison system and no longer needs to use capital punishment. Although individual states have decided to end the death penalty, many states still have it. The federal government also
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Does it really? People do not get over the death of anyone they love so quickly. Greif is a highly complex issue. People react in their own ways to grief. Killing another person does not bring back the dead. Some loved ones of the victims may even feel worse because there was another death. Even killers have family members. Now that family is grieving. Those family members usually consist of people who had absolutely nothing to do with the crimes involved and yet they are the ones left to mourn for the rest of their lives while the murderer no longer suffers because he or she is dead. Capital punishment all seems to be a huge cycle of grief without end. Also punished are the people who have to execute the prisoners. Taking of a human life, even when legal, can cause intense stress and sorrow that will last for the rest of the executioner’s life. Some say that capital punishment methods like lethal injection are painless but unfortunately we cannot ask anyone to come back from the dead and say, “Oh, yes, my execution was painless. Thanks for