March 1944, deep in Jim Crow South, police came for fourteen year old George Stinney Jr. He was accused for the death of two young white girls. June 16, 1944 he was the youngest person to be put to death by death penalty. Seventy years later he was exonerated (Exonerated Cases). Cases like this are why death penalties should not be used to punish criminals because innocent cases do occur, mistakes happen, and death penalties does not stop the matter of crime. The death penalty was created first in the United Kingdom by hanging in 1890. In 1931 the United States picked up the trend when thirty year old William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electrocution. The death penalty is performed by the government, made by a sentence. The sentence is referred to time incarcerated. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. Since 1976 there have been 1419 prisoners executed in the U.S since the death penalty was started.There are five methods of execution; lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and firing …show more content…
This does not mean that the innocent case should be forgotten. Ruben Cantu constantly proclaimed his innocence and was only seventeen years old when he was charged with capital murder for the shooting death of a San Antonio man during an attempted robbery. Both a key eyewitness in the state's case against Cantu and Cantu's co-defendant have come forward to say that Texas executed an innocent man (Death Penalty Information Center). Innocent cases like this are why no one should be put to death. Now the Cantu family has to mourn over the unnecessary death of a loved one. Researchers estimate that more than 340 United States inmates that could have been exonerated were sentenced to death since 1973, this is a problem. All lives are important, and can be spent doing something constructive in life other than being