Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

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The death penalty, also known as capital punishment, is a practice governments use where a person can be sentenced to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. Nevertheless, it is unconstitutional to use the death penalty for someone who has committed a crime where no one is killed. According to CNN, in the United States, capital punishment is legal in 31 US states as of 2017. As of 2016, there were 2,902 people who were put on death row. When capital punishment came back in 1976, 1,458 people have been executed since. According to the Guardian, the United States is one of four countries in the whole world that has capital punishment. The others being Iran, North Korea, and Yemen. Initially you would think the United States would no longer have capital punishment in place, but it is still believed today by many people and can be interpreted as “eye for an eye”. Personally, I do not think that a person shall be sentenced to death regardless of how bad the crime is. The government is not morally fit to make the decision to take someones’ life away, but they can put the person in prison if the judge is convinced the person did the crime. The decisions being made are not always going to be correct. What if the person being accused is totally innocent and they have already served plenty years in prison? Should there be reparations for the person who was wrongfully accused? What is the best ethical approach to capital punishment and what are possible solutions for this? In