Public executions have been part of United States since the 1608 execution of Captain George Kendall, and its application survived to the present-day (Archibald, 2015). Currently, thirty-one states still retain the death penalty but fortunately only seven in 2014 conducted executions (Death Penalty Database, 2014). Recent, debate between scholar's address the legality of the death penalty and whether heinous crimes constitute an automatic execution. However, the current debates neglect to directly address the reason why some U.S. states allow the death penalty while others have made it illegal. In the context of examining the difference in scholarly debates and the legality of the death penalty, the following hypothesis interprets the …show more content…
It is all about politicians making decisions on behalf of its state and citizens. It is what Professor of sociology David Garland (as cited in Girling, 2016) contends as a system of communication, discourse, and debate. That is the formation of laws that enacted the death penalty by politicians communicating the advantages of the death penalty as containing the heinous while opponents cite the disadvantages of the moral implications of convicting the innocent. Once both campaigns the retentionist/abolitionist are declared then it filters to the citizens of the state creating discourse and then debate among state officials. The trickle-down effect is further explained by Dr. Paul Larkin (2016) in his case study that points to less death row inmates granted clemency. Larkin's finding proved that there were less death row inmates in the pool. Perhaps, such conclusions are a result of retentionist states sentencing criminals to life due to the on-going political debate. Citizens must discern how and if elected officials work in their best interest when forming decisions on implementation or removal of the death penalty. To further understand the impact of the death penalty it is crucial to understand the methodologies of current