Death Penalty Essay -- essays research papers fc

I.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After spending ten long years on death row, he is escorted today by the warden down the dimly lit white hallway to the room in which judgement day will finally arrive. As he moves closer, he begins to regret having led a violent life of crime and murder that had caused him to be sentenced to death so long ago. The door finally opens, and there he stands face to face with â€Å"old sparky†, a.k.a. the electric chair. He is strapped in and a leather helmet containing a wet sponge is placed over his head along with a brass liner that functions as an entry electrode through which nearly 2500 volts of electricity will pass. The exit electrode- a band of brass also with a soaked sponge- is attached to the prisoner’s shaved calf. As a final preparation, a leather hood is placed over his face.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The switch is then pulled and 2,350 volts strike though the inmate’s body for eight seconds, followed by 22 seconds of one thousand volts. The cycle is repeated immediately. This high-voltage electrocution raises the temperature of his brain to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and fries his internal organs (Freedberg 2).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The passage above describes a typical criminal execution by the electric chair, one of the various methods of capital punishment, otherwise known as the death penalty. The sentence of death has long been an accepted form of justice, yet today, capital punishment has remained a hotly debated issue. Some believe this punishment to be cruel and unusual and therefore violating the United States Constitution, while in reality the death penalty is fair and just punishment for murder and other extremely violent crimes. With these clashing viewpoints, there are also differences in the policies of various states, with some states supporting the death penalty, and others not. This serves as an injustice because murderers convicted in states such as Texas or Florida, which support the death penalty, will truly be brought to justice, while murderers in states such as North Dakota or Wisconsin will not (Staletovich 5-6). It is with this reasoning that the death penalty should undoubtedly be implemented in all fifty United States and the District of Columbia. II.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the United States today, capital punishment is an integral part of the criminal justice system, and has... ...red of paying for their care. In addition, the cost of executing versus jailing a prisoner for life cannot be measured exclusively in dollars. Capital punishment has moral value for society and emotional value for families of victims- both unquantifiable (Smith 11). VI.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The death penalty, as you can see, should not be viewed as an act of killing people who kill people just to show that killing people is wrong, but as an act of safeguarding our society from potential or previous murderers and delivering justice to those who kill. Works Cited Barry, John. Is the Death Penalty Cruel and Unusual? 4 Dec. 2000 Brown, David L. The Bible’s Teaching on Capital Punishment. 5 Dec. 2000 Freedberg, Sydney. â€Å"Bloody Execution Leads to Stay for 2nd Inmate.† St. Petersburg Times. 9 Jul. 1999, Newsbank. CD-ROM. Smith, Sharon C. Capital Punishment in the United States. 6 Dec. 2000 Staletovich, Jenny. â€Å"The Electric Chair Power Struggle.† Palm Beach Post. 2 Jan. 2000, SIRS Researcher. CD-ROM. Winter 2000.