Maria Veronica Salinas Rhetoric Summer 2002 Capital Punishment: The Controversy           The death penalty has been around for centuries and has evolved from torturous hangings, beheadings, and the electric chair, to lethal injection.  Yet, the controversy still remains regarding whether the death penalty should be enforced as punishment for brutal criminal acts.  Capital punishment, as harsh as it may seem to some, is the only form of punishment that will ensure the safety and justice of good standing Americans           The popularity of early methods of capital punishment such as hangings and the electric chair quickly declined due to the barbarity of the way people died.  Matt Bean, a writer for Courttv.com, explains how public executions no longer take place because of an incident in 1936.  An enormous crowd was present at the hanging of Rainey Bethea, a black man accused of raping and murdering a seventy-year-old white woman.  The public was so appalled by the hanging that from there after hangings were no longer administered in the company of the public.  Many of these deaths were long and painful, raising the question of banning the death penalty.  Writer Tom Phillips stated how many horror stories were told regarding the electric chair because incorrect amounts of currents were used at times.  He states, "even when several shocks are not required, the side effects of electrocution, charred flesh, burnt hair, and burst eyeballs are appalling."  In 1972, the death penalty was found to be unconstitutional, but only four years later it was brought back into effect.  According to David Anderson, an author in Sweden, since the death penalty was reinstated, there have not been as many executions as there were in the 1930's.  He says that up until 1998 there were only about 500 executions from the time it was restored.  That number is insignificant compared to the number of murders every year, which is well over forty times that amount.  Currently forty-two states enforce capital punishment.  Out of those, thirty-six states use a simple method of execution resembling a medical procedure called lethal injection. This procedure has been the most accepted in America because the criminal is, in a sense, put to sleep as veterinarians do to animals.  The person can be pronounced dead in just a matter of minutes (Phillips).  Frederick Drimmer, author of Until You are Dead: The Book of Executions in America, lists the three drugs used for the lethal injection when it first came about: pavulon, potassium chloride, and sodium thiopental.  These are used in hospitals every day in small doses, but in large amounts cause death (73).           A major dispute on capital punishment seems to be whether or not it is immoral or uncivilized to sentence someone to death.  Many people hold the belief that the death sentence shows disrespect for human life and that killing no matter what reason is wrong.  Opponents of the death penalty argue that criminals should be punished relentlessly for harming or murdering other people, but advocate using a life sentence instead of the death penalty.  Another topic of debate is the fear of innocent people being found guilty and executed along with the criminals who do commit these crimes.  There have been cases in which people who were sentenced and executed, were proven innocent months later.           Pro-capital punishment advocates agree that murder is indeed immoral and the criminals should be punished severely.  Killing, though, is not necessarily always wrong or immoral.  Is it considered immoral when a soldier kills in battle for his country, or when a police officer has no choice but to shoot someone to protect another who is about to be murdered?  The death penalty is not used for public amusement, but as a punishment for brutal crimes committed toward innocent people.  Life in prison is not punishment enough to make up for the lives murderers take.  Innocent people are violently murdered every day.  David Michael Smith, writer for Peace Review, points out, "more than 450 people are awaiting execution in Texas [alone]" (495).  Author Claudia Whitman explains how the victims' families need some sense of assurance and closure from the murderer to make sure the murderer harms no other loved ones (521).  The only way to ensure that is through the death penalty.  In the past, use of the gas chamber as punishment or electrocution may have seemed barbaric, but lethal injection, our most current form of capital punishment, is nowhere near being uncivilized.  Anderson explains in simple terms that putting the death penalty into use shows how America believes in justice and the value of human lives taken mercilessly by violent criminals.  If lives are taken in a heinous way, the perpetrators should expect severe punishment for their actions.           Regarding the dispute of innocent people being executed, there are many precautions taken when deciding whether or not someone will be executed for a crime.  It is understandable that people worry about this happening since the results are irrevocable. The chance for error is slight with the use of DNA analysis and modern technology, and the person can only be sentenced to execution if there is extensive evidence, and he is guilty without a doubt.  Even at that, the cases can take anywhere up to thirteen years to determine a sentence (Anderson).  Allowing a convicted murderer to live is a great risk for more innocent people being hurt or killed.  Lance Morrow, a writer for Time, told the story of a racist man named John William King.  He chained a black man to the back of his truck and dragged him along a dirt road leaving him skinned alive.  While in jail this man was able to get a hold of a knife and attempted to kill someone else.  King was sentenced to execution because the court believed it would have been a great hazard to allow him to live.  If he was left to spend life in prison, he surely would have hurt someone else of another race (Morrow).  Justice will not be served if we allow hundreds of criminals to avoid the death sentence so that one innocent person will not be executed.  This would be severely unacceptable to the relatives of victims.  Anderson states, "If hundreds of innocent people die when a liner sinks, no one will claim that liners should be stopped."  In other words, the death penalty should not be banned to prevent the chance of an innocent person being executed.  All that needs to be done is take greater precautions to ensure the person is indeed guilty.           With the death penalty in effect, Americans can expect a safer America. The death penalty has been found to have an effect on preventing crimes.  Professors William C. Bailey and Ruth D. Peterson wrote about a study conducted in the early 1920's to try to find the deterring affect of the death penalty.  The number of slaughters declined by almost forty percent for two weeks after every execution that took place (723).  Because of the fear of being executed, fewer crimes were committed.  According to "Number of Death Sentences in Sharp Decline," California is the state with the largest number of people awaiting the death penalty. There have only been nine executions since 1976, due to the fact that in the state of California there was a sharp decline in the number of violent crimes committed.  The percentage of criminals sentenced to execution has dropped by seven percent from 1998 to the year 2001.  Although opponents believe a lifetime in prison without parole would help in reducing violent crimes, there would be a few drawbacks to that approach.  Life imprisonment would not prevent criminals from hurting others in prison.  Professor and writer Paul Cassell gives the example of an officer who died because he was stabbed close to forty times with a knife an inmate made.  The murderer, Thomas Silverstein, was already serving three life sentences.  Cassell states, "at least five federal prison officers have been killed since December of 1982 and the inmates in at least three of the incidents were already serving life sentences for murder."  Innocent lives could have been spared with the enforcement of capital punishment in those examples, but instead, the life sentence was used.  There are also some criminals let out of prison who go into a relapse of committing crimes.  Another threat posed is if the criminal escapes, the opportunity to hurt others is in their hands.  If a convicted murderer is executed, there is no chance of that person escaping or being let out of prison to hurt anyone else.           The majority of Americans are supportive of capital punishment.  President George Bush stated, "we have a democracy; the death penalty is the will of the people" (qtd. in Whitman 519).  Brutal murderers should not have the right to simply keep enduring life in prison, but should be punished for taking the lives of innocent people.  Murder is unacceptable in America, and it is obvious that as long as we implement capital punishment, we will be issuing justice to our society and making it a safer place to live.  There is no alternative to the death penalty. Sources Sited Anderson, David. The Death Penalty-A Defense. 2001. 15 June 2002           <http://w1.155telia.com~u15509119/>. Bailey, William C., and Ruth D. Peterson. "Murder and Capital Punishment: A Monthly Time-Series Analysis of Execution Publicity."  American Sociological Review 54 (1989):           722-743. Bean, Matt.  Dying the Hard Way? Firing Squads and Hangings Still Legal in Some States. 3           March. 2001 Courttv.com. 25 June 2002 <http://www.courttv.com/news/feature/           execution_ctv.html>. Cassell, Paul.  Why the Death Penalty.  7 June 2002. Death Penalty Information. 30 June 2002           <http://www.dpinfo.com/dpwhy.htm>. Drimmer, Frederick.  Until You are Dead: The Book of Public Executions in America.           Secaucus, NJ: Carol Publishing Group, 1990. Morrow, Lance.  "Something We Cannot Accept." Time 8 March 1999: 92. "Number of Death Sentences in Sharp Decline." Xinuha News Agency. 10 June 2002. Phillips, Tom.  "End of the Rope." Contemporary Review 272 (1998): 181+. Smith, David Michael.  "The Death Penalty Capital of the Western World." Peace Review 13           (2001): 495-501. Whitman, Claudia.  "The Death Penalty as the Will of the People." Peace Review 13 (2001):           519-523.