The leaders of our country use capital punishment as a way of trying to deter people from committing violent crimes, (Cauthen 4) but is it a violation of the Eight Amendment? The Eight Amendment says that "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted" (Constitution). The term capital comes from earlier times when prisoners had their "capitals" (their heads) severed from their bodies (Religious 5). "Punishments that arise out of a thirst for vengeance are inhumane, counterproductive and unnecessary" (Endres). Although a criminal should obviously have to pay the consequences for taking someone's life, the concept of capital punishment can not be justified due to its archaic inhumanity.
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"The first execution in the territory now know as the United States of America was of Daniel Frank, (who was) put to death in 1622 in the colony of Virginia for the crime of theft" (Justice Center 1). In Georgia it was a fact that if you were a black person who had killed a white person, you were seven times more likely to be sentenced to the death penalty then if you were a white person who has killed a black person (Endres). Since then such cases as Furman vs. Georgia(1972), more then 600 inmates who were previously sentenced to death had their sentences lifted (Justice Center 3). This is the same Supreme Court, who as of right now has 33 teens on death row and as of a study done on October 19, 2000 has had 547 prisoners executed in the 1990's alone (Religious Tolerance 2). The United States is one of the few counties left in the world who execute mentally ill persons with very low IQ's, and child murderers (people who were under the age of 18 when they committed the crime (Religious Tolerance). By killing a person who has committed the act of murder you are saying as long as you are part of the government, you have the right to kill another human being.