Capital Punishment is punishment by death for committing a crime. To receive the death penalty you must murder, rape, treason, kidnap, or armed robbery. By doing any one of these crimes you are eligible for the death penalty. There have been many arguments about the morality and effectiveness of the death penalty. .
There are six main types of execution: Hanging, firing quad, garroting, electrocution, lethal injection, gas chamber. The most used way of executing a prisoner is by using the lethal injection, 677 have been executed. The second most widely used way of executing a prisoner is with the electric chair, there have been 150 executions by way of the electric chair. There are 3 other ways to execute a prisoner; they are the gas chamber, the firing squad, and hanging. These last three ways are the least used to execute a prisoner with only 16 total for these three methods.
The death penalty deters murder and prevents murderers from killing again by putting the fear of death in to would be killers. A person is less likely to do something, if he or she thinks that harm will come to him. Another way the death penalty may help deter murder is the fact that if the killer is dead, he or she will not be able to kill again. If a man kills a man and is convicted he should be ready to die next. Supporters of the death penalty feel that criminals should be punished for their crimes, and that it doesn't matter whether it will deter crime. They want to make examples out of offenders so that the threat of death will be enough to stop them from committing such horrible crimes.
In 2000 some states paused execution due to new evidence that showed a number of prisoners that were on death row were innocent. In 2002 the United States Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute people who were mentally retarded. Also in 2002 the United States Supreme Court that juries, must impose the death penalty.