Among the decades-old arguments of abortion, immigration reform, and gun control, an issue that usually flies under the radar of major issues is the death penalty – the harshest penalty under the American law system.
The death penalty, more formally known as capital punishment, is the killing of a person as a punishment for a crime. Over the centuries, many forms of method was used to end a person’s life, including execution by firing squad, guillotine and the electric chair.
Ever since the creation of the United States, opposition for the death penalty has fluctuated. In the 1960’s, almost half of Americans opposed the death penalty. In a 2016 Gallup poll, 37% of Americans opposed the death penalty, while 60% of Americans supported it.
The death penalty is still legal in over half of the states. It is also still legal in the federal government. Many of those who campaign for the abolition of the death penalty show evidence of select cases of who have been put on death row or have been executed are not the person that committed the crime. This can be due to the emergence of DNA penalty in the past few decades.
In the modern day, the death penalty is most commonly used for those who have committed aggravated murder. A argument for when it should be used has also been formed. Those who are considered serial killers (defined as those who have killed three or more people), should be considered for the death penalty. The death penalty, the finality of capital punishment, the doom and gloom over it, should only be considered for those who commit the most heinous crimes.
Another way that the death penalty can be considered is for those who commit a major act of terrorism. One case of this happening is Timothy McVeigh, the Gulf War veteran who carried out the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The event killed 168 people and was the deadliest act of terrorism committed on United States soil prior to the September 11th attacks in 2001.
Those who commit major acts of terrorism on American soil that lead to the deaths of innocent people should be dealt with harshly. There must be a rigorous set of protocol that must be used before capital punishment be recommended. There must not be the terrible mistake that the one who has been executed is not the person who committed the crime.
Even though the death penalty should still be used, the criteria for which it should be used should be narrowed dramatically and only used for the most harrowing crimes.
