Thirty eight states in the United States enforce the death penalty. Some people
are in favor of the death penalty, but that may be because they have not been
directly involved with it. Sometimes people can change their views about an
issue when that issue all of a sudden becomes a part of their lives. Death is
not something to be played with. Someone's life should not be put in the hands
of another person or the government. These are the five ways people are murdered
by the government: Lethal injection is the most common form of execution. This
is when a prisoner is strapped to a gurney, while two needles are placed in each
arm. Two different types of chemicals are released putting the inmate to sleep.
A third chemical, a muscle relaxer, is released causing the prisoner to stop
breathing within minutes. Approximately five states use the gas chamber as a
method of execution. A prisoner is strapped down in a chamber where acid is
released into a pan. Tablets are then dropped in the pan causing a chemical
reaction that causes a deadly poisonous gas to knock the prisoner unconscious.
Death occurs within minutes. Gas masked men decontaminate the body with bleach
so as not to harm themselves while removing the body. Only a few states still
use two of the oldest forms of execution today. Firing squads and hanging are
still methods of executing criminals in the United States. Five or more men
shoot a prisoner, sometimes killing him/her right away, when states kill by
firing squads. When states use the hanging method, they try to set the noose
just right so as not to allow suffocation, and to snap the neck and kill the
inmate instantly. However, if done incorrectly, suffocation and suffering
sometimes occur. Probably the most cruel and unusual method of execution is
death by the electric chair. When a prisoner is strapped into this chair,
his/her organs are burned. The inmate's flesh may catch on fire, and he/she may
vomit blood. He/she may also violently twitch or leap forward as his/her insides
are being electrocuted. One may be able to handle the fact that a criminal is
being put to death. They might think that a criminal has done wrong, so they
deserve to die. What they might not be thinking about is that criminal may be
someone's son or daughter, mom or dad, niece or nephew, brother or sister,
husband or wife. A human life is very precious. People need to learn from their
mistakes and a corpse cannot learn anything. The government should not take
someone's life that has done wrong, but rather teach them the right way, and
help them learn from their mistakes. The eight amendment protects Americans from
cruel and unusual punishment. Death is very cruel and could be perceived as
unusual, depending on the individual. Cruel and unusual are such vague
adjectives, that they can be defined in several ways. What one person believes
to be cruel, another person may believe is fair. This country is so diverse,
with many different types of cultures and up-bringings, that deciding on one
meaning for these two terms fairly for all people of the United States is nearly
impossible. Therefore, the eighth amendment should be reworded, or the death
penalty should be illegal. Ingesting poisonous gas, being burned from the inside
out, suffocating from a noose, receiving poisonous chemicals through the veins,
and being shot could all be defined as cruel and unusual. This cruelty's purpose
is to teach a lesson. When judges and juries try to correct crime by putting a
prisoner to death, the only lesson they are teaching to American citizens is
hypocrisy. If murder was the crime, they are saying killing another human being
is wrong, but it is right if judges and juries do it. In the book, Capital
Revenge, Roy Meader thinks judges and juries are hypocrites, stating that when
people sentence criminals to death they should look in the mirror. He wonders if
they should ask themselves, "Should old commandments be revised to meet
modern circumstances - Thou shalt not kill, except in some cases?" (Meader
3). People should not be allowed to kill people whether by law or otherwise.
When criminals are sentenced to death, they are taken away the freedom to learn
from their mistakes. Meader also looks at capital punishment as a way of
revenge. He thinks that America does not help citizens, but avenges them for
their crimes. When a criminal is put to death, the families of the victims are
supposed to be magically put at ease. The courts have done their jobs, and they
are off to go home to their families and sleep tight, knowing they have done the
right thing. But all they have done is created another loss to another family.
Putting a criminal to death does not bring back the life of the first victim,
and it does not help correct the criminal. Putting a criminal to death only
creates another victim. Many people have been taught that punishment should fit
the crime, that an "eye for an eye" is a just punishment. They are
also taught as children that revenge is wrong. This is extremely hypocritical.
The public would not agree with a mother punching her son in the face because he
punched another child in the face. In fact, the law prohibits her from teaching
him a lesson in that way. Revenge does not teach, it only creates more strife,
victims, and losses. While many people see the death penalty as vengeful, others
may see it as a deterrent. The government may think killing a human being will
show others that this is what will happen if they misbehave. The idea is the
harsher the punishment, the less crime there will be on the streets. In studies
done over the years, professors Hugo Bedau and Chester Pierce of Harvard and
Tufts Universities have proved this theory wrong. They proved that "the
average [homicide] rate is considerably greater in capital states, and that is
the findings in all investigations," (Bedau, Chester 306). Capital
punishment does not teach citizens how to behave the right way, but the wrong
way. Maybe citizens are noticing all the killing the government is doing, and
have decided to follow their examples and start killing as well. Instead of
teaching through examples, the United States should stop the crimes before they
start. Justice would be served if crime never erupted in the first place. Is it
fair to only try to stop crime after one has already been committed? Instead of
trying to eliminate criminals, the United States should try to eliminate
victims. The government needs to look at why certain crimes are being committed
and try to fix the problems of the crime's purpose. In a book entitled Pileup on
Death Row, Burton Wolfe quoted Clarence Darrow when he spoke on his beliefs of
the death penalty. Darrow says, "Crime and poverty and ignorance have
always gone hand in hand. When our lawmakers realize this, they will stop
legislating more punishments and go after the causes," (Wolfe 77). In
helping America's problems, such as poverty, the government may be saving
millions of lives instead of ending them.

BibliographyBedau, Hugo, and Chester Pierce. Capital Punishment in the United States. New
York: AMS Press, 1976. Meader, Roy. Capital Revenge. Philedelphia: Dorrance,
1975. Wolfe, Burton. Pileup on Deathrow. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973.