Capital Punishment Is Barbaric Essay -- Anti Death Penalty Essays

Who are we, any of us, to decide whether or not the man standing next to us, murderer or otherwise, is â€Å"no longer fit to be among us†? Capital punishment is used for such crimes as treason, murder, terrorism, kidnapping, and even for perjury causing the execution of an innocent person. It has been debated for years, whether or not the death penalty is just. And over two-thirds of the countries in the world have disallowed any form of government from practicing the death penalty. In the Eighth Amendment of our Constitution it is stated that cruel and unusual punishments, such as death, shall not be inflicted upon a man. The insertion of this small statement in one of the documents that our country was built upon is proof of man’s ability to recognize that there is indeed a line to be crossed when it comes to punishment. Yet somehow, man’s actions show a complete disregard for this part of our Constitution. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. If this is the conclusion that the majority of our society comes to, then why do they teach their children differently? From day one it is impressed upon the majority of young minds that it is not acceptable to hit someone just because they hit you. So when suddenly at the age of eighteen, people in the United States can be charged with murder and put to death, it’s confusing wondering what it is that has changed. It is against all human rights to deny any man or woman of their life. Other than the moral reasons to abolish capital punishment, there are always the possibilities of wrongful conviction or mental illness. There is no proof that the death penalty is at all a preventative measure against murder, so why go so far as to kill another human being? Within the last 38 year... ...death-penalty-and-innocence http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-cost http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=53 http://crime.about.com/od/death/i/dpissue1.htm http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/crimes-punishable-death-penalty#BJS http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001000 http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/deathpenalty.htm http://www.openbible.info/topics/eye_for_an_eye http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-and-death-penalty http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.source.php?sourceID=006946 https://death.rdsecure.org/article.php?id=42 http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/death-penalty/us-death-penalty-facts/death-penalty-cost http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3259389&page=1 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/lack-lawyers-blocking-appeals-capital-cases