Americans Love Capital Punishment :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Americans Love Capital Punishment      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is one question that has always brought about controversy. Should capital punishment be used as a way of disciplining criminals?   Over the past twenty years, there has been an enormous increase in violent crimes. It seems logical that a person is less likely to commit a given act if by doing so he will suffer swift and certain punishment of a horrible kind.   As most Americans agree, death is the only appropriate punishment for such crimes.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In ancient times' executions were not uncommon.   Even the Bible teaches capital punishment.   It states, â€Å"Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man† (Bible). In ancient times a set of laws were written which specified many crimes punishable by capital punishment.   These laws were the Code of Hammurabi.   Some of the punishable crimes mentioned included adultery, robbery witchcraft, and murder. During the Middle Ages, the Church assumed the responsibility of administering punishments. During the late 1700's the death penalty steadily grew in acceptance.   Over 200 crimes were punishable by death at the beginning of the 1800's.   There were just as many methods used to execute wrong-doers as there were crimes.   Some of the techniques used included beheading, stoning, drowning, hanging, crucifying, and burying people alive. Also used were many nontraditional forms of execution.   One type of execution utilized elephants to crush the criminal's head on a stone block.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As times changed, so did the death penalty.   Laws aimed at abolishing the death penalty began to evolve at the turn of the century.   Even with the changes made, the effectiveness of capital punishment stayed right on track. The crimes punishable by death became more specific, while some were eradicated completely.   For example, there are different types of capital murder that have been specifically defined, but vary from one jurisdiction to another.   These include murder carried out during the commission of another felony, murder of a peace officer, corrections employee, or firefighter engaged in the performance of official duties, murder by an inmate serving a life sentence, and murder for hire (Contract Murder).   Other crimes worthy of death include espionage by a member of the Armed Forces (communication of information to a foreign government), tampering where death results by a witness, and death resulting from aircraft hijacking.   While hangings and firing squads remained in use, many forms of execution were done away with. Methods such as electrocution, lethal gas, and lethal injection soon replaced the annulled ones.   As with almost everything, there were exceptions made.   Some states the prohibited the