Darien Ellis
English 101: Composition
March 16, 2016
The use of the death penalty in the United States has always been a controversial topic.
The death penalty, also known as Capital Punishment, is a legal process where a person is put to
death by the state as a punishment for a heinous crime. The judicial decree that someone be
punished in this manner is a death sentence, while the actual enforcement is an execution
(Bishop 1). Over the years, most of the world has abolished the death penalty. But the United
States government, and a majority of its citizens, defend and support its continued use. There is
evidence, however, that some attitudes about the death penalty are changing. In my opinion, the
death penalty should be legal. The death penalty serves justice. If you think that you have the
right to end someone’s life, you deserve the death penalty. If you don’t have respect for someone
else’s life then you don’t deserve the right to live. Our jails are for people who commit small
crimes. Not murder. I think if you kill someone, especially if it is premeditated, you should be
killed too. Yes, it is somewhat harsh, but killers should not be living and have a possibility to
escape prison, and get to eat, sleep, and other activities in prison. People in nursing homes have
it worse than them, and they didn’t commit a cold blooded crime. Also, tax payers should not
have to pay for them to live and be supported in jail. An argument comes up that they don’t learn
their lesson just dying, but the suspense and ultimate fear they get when sitting on that table with
the needle in their arm, the fear is unbearable. I do not think anything will happen with this
debate in the future, we will always have murderers, we will always have death, and we will
always have this controversial issue. I feel that there are never going to be any solutions to this
problem, everyone is always going to have their own opinion about the death penalty, and this
controversial topic will be around for years to come.
The first known execution was in the colony of Virginia in 1622, by the 1800s the law in
the United States not only accepted capital punishment but also required it (“Facts about the
Death Penalty” 3). Execution was the automatic penalty for anyone convicted of murder or
several other serious crimes. The debate has shifted from whether capital punishment is
appropriate in a modern civilized society to questions about the fairness of the trials and the
reliability of the results. These questions have contributed to the rise of citizens who oppose the
death penalty (“Facts about the Death Penalty” 3). A divided United States Supreme Court also
appears to be struggling with several important aspects of the death penalty. Especially
