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Death Penalty

The United States has a history of performing executions which date back to the very early 1600s, when the first person was recorded to have been executed for spying. Last year (in 2010), the United States executed 46 people who had been sentenced to death. There has also been a change in the definition of capital crimes and, while earlier, even crimes other than homicide wereconsidered as capital crimes based on their gravity, now, only homicide crimes are classified as capital crimes (crimes which warrant death / capital punishment). There are cases in history where people have been executed for stealing horses, practicing witchcraft, as well as for helping slaves. Quite a few people were posthumously pardoned.

Support for the death penalty in the US is droppingover the years, and while some people are still for it, an increasing number are strongly against it, and now it is used very rarely, only in cases of aggravated murder or felony. The rules of the death penalty and its application also vary, depending on the states / jurisdictions. While there are some jurisdictions that have completely banned it, others are still undecided about when to apply it,while 34 jurisdictions do not permit it at all. There is a steady shift from the death penalty towards the more humane life imprisonment.
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Arguments For:

• The first and most obvious reason would be, that the death penalty gives the family and friends of the victim closure. The whole process is long and drawn out, draining the victim's close ones emotionally and financially. The deathpenalty is a sort of consolation or closure for their long suffering, a way of closing off that horrid chapter in their lives.

• With DNA testing (99% reliable), the possibility of sentencing the wrong, innocent people to death, as used to happen before, is almost completely eliminated, which prompts many to ask, if there is no doubt that the person convicted is guilty, why not sentence him/her todeath?

• It is considered that the death penalty acts as a very strong deterrent for criminals, that it stops them from committing crimes and lowers the crime rates. Prison time is enough to stop most people, but for some people, a stronger reason is needed. Criminals consider their odds before taking someone's life. The fact that most criminals who have been sentenced to death appeal for lifeimprisonment, itself shows that they fear death more than life in prison.
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Arguments Against:

• When the court sentences a person to death, the person sentenced will appeal, till he exhausts all his appeals. This whole process of appeals is very costly, and in almost 9 out of 10 cases, quite fruitless. It is just a method of delaying the sentence. It puts a strain on the economical andhuman resources of the judicial system.

• People who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, and were later found to be innocent, were posthumously pardoned and declared innocent. But this makes hardly any difference to the loved ones, because it is not going to bring back the dead person. Although the chances of sentencing the wrong person have reduced to almost negligible because of theaccuracy of DNA and other tests, it is still a possibility, and is one of the main arguments against the death penalty.

• For every death sentence there are multiple appeals. These pile up and clog the court system, blocking the road for other important cases and delaying them.

• If the government wants to send a message that killing is wrong, how can it convey the same by killing a person?Killing to convince people that killing is wrong, doesn't sound right, does it?

• There have been many cases where the people who were convicted and sentenced to death were posthumously found to be innocent. This meant that the government killed innocent people, by mistake of course, but caused an innocent death nonetheless.

• And last but not the least, the killing of the criminal is not...