Death Penalty

Abolishing the Death Penalty

Controversies over the American courts using such a method as the death penalty, which is the punishment of execution administered to someone convicted of a capital crime, have been around since 1846 when Michigan eliminated capital punishment for all crimes except treason. Some argue that it is the best answer for murder while their opponents claim that this punishment is still cruel. The cessation of an individual’s life through the death penalty should never be an option in the courts of the United States due to how atrocious the punishments are. Courts in the United States should really contemplate the abolishment of the death penalty since there is always a chance of the convicted criminal being innocent of the charge. Death penalties in the U.S.A have been outdated for a quite a while now which leads to the fact that it should be abolished, and eliminated from the courts of America.
The elimination of the death penalty has been debated in America since the 1800’s when Michigan became the first state to abolish the use of this penalty. Rhode Island and Wisconsin later followed Michigan’s lead and also ended their use of the death penalty in 1852 and 1853, respectively (Bonnor and Fessendon). Knowing that these states put an end to death penalty this early in history shows how outdated the other 32 states who still use it are. As years went by in this country, people started realizing how cruel this practice in the courts was, which led to states abolishing it in the early 1900’s during the Progressive Period. In these years, six states abolished the death penalty in a span of ten years, from 1907 to 1917, even though five of these states later reinstated the death penalty after the panic of the Russian Revolution rose in America (Bonnor and Fessendon). Although the states reinstated the death penalty, them abolishing it for some time is an indication that states were already thinking about permanently removing it during this...