Death Penalty
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The courts positions of the death penalty have changed over the years. For centuries societies have used death as the ultimate penalty for crime. In the 1960's, the court ruled against the death penalty as a "cruel and unusual punishment", which was forbidden by the eighth amendment of the Constitution. By the 1990's the death penalty was again in wide use supported by the court and Congress, which continually expanded by legislation the crimes for which death would be an acceptable penalty.
When turning on the television, radio, or simply opening the local newspaper, we are always attacked with news of arrests, murders, homicides, and other such tragedies. There are many things that I don't agree with in today's society, but, out of all the wrongdoing that takes place, murder, including the death penalty. is the worst of them. I am strongly against the death penalty because it violates God's rules, costs the tax payers too much money, the possible "wrongly accused," and it is cruel and unusual punishment. How often do these concepts creep into the public's mind when it hears of our 'fair, trusty' government taking away someone's breathing rights?
Scientific studies have failed to find convincing evidence that the death penalty prevents or discourages crime more than other punishments...