Capital Punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the retribution given to criminals that have committed a capital offense. According to “41 Federal Capital Offences,” a person commits a capital offense if they “commit murder as well as murder committed during a drug-related drive-by shooting, murder during a kidnapping, murder for hire, and genocide. It also includes espionage, treason, and death resulting from aircraft hijacking.” The death penalty has always been a very controversial topic for multiple reasons. However, I have always believed that it is a necessary punishment for such heinous crimes. From 1977 to May 2016, 1,436 criminals have been executed in the United States. Those 1,436 criminals have caused an uproar …show more content…
During the time of the Roman Empire, the methods to carry out capital punishment typically involved either being stoned to death or crucifixion. From the Medieval ages to the French Revolution, the method of carrying out capital punishment was usually decapitation. As the years progressed, the methods went from decapitation to hangings. After guns were invented, firing squads were the next method for the death penalty. Once the world discovered how to harness the power of electricity, the electric chair was used to execute inmates. The opponents to the death penalty thought that the electric chair was too inhumane, so they changed their methods to lethal injection. Lethal injection is the primary method used in the United States today. Since 1976, inmates sentenced to death have been executed by hangings (3 executions), firing squads (3 executions), gas chambers (11 executions), electrocution (158 executions), and lethal injection (1288 executions) (Facts about the Death Penalty p. 3). The price of the drug has sky-rocketed in the past few years. According to Moomaw, the Virginia Department of Corrections paid $16,500 to an unnamed supplier for the lethal injection drugs for execution. Prison officials said that was more than 30 times higher than what they paid for the same amount of the drugs last year. It cost $525.14 for an equal batch for the lethal injection drugs and the same batch would have cost $250 in 2013 and