Many issues surround the death penalty. Is it moral to kill a person? Does the death penalty violate the eighth amendment? Has the death penalty decreased crime? And who has the right to issue the death penalty, the states or the federal government? These questions and many more have brought about the heated debates on the death penalty. After World War II, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declarations of Human Rights, the 1948 document proclaimed a "right to life". The International Abolition of the Death Penalty was not a realistic goal at the time, so the Universal Declaration focused on limiting the death of juveniles, pregnant women and the elderly . While, the death penalty was still existent in the United States, there were strong pressures to get rid of the death penalty. This resulted in an unofficial halt on executions for several years. Legal challenges to the death penalty culminated in the Supreme Court ruling of Furman v. Georgia. The Supreme Court decision struck down the federal and state capital punishment laws permitting wide discretion in the death penalty . The majority ruled that the death penalty constituted cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment. More that 600 death row inmates between 1967-1972 had their death sentences lifted as a result of Furman . From there, crimes began to escalate, and the states began to revise the legislation in order to satisfy the Supreme Court. In 1976, the death penalty was reinstated; states were able to decide whether or not the death penalty was constitutional. Today, each individual state chooses whether they want to use the death penalty. The problem with the death penalty today is that innocent people are being executed. Many barriers stand in the way of solving this problem. Today, no one knows for sure how many people are sitting on death row that are innocent.
