Support for the death penalty in the U.S. has risen to an average of 80% according to an article written by Richard Worsnop entitled, "Death penalty debate centers on Retribution." Capital punishment is the execution of criminals by the state for committing heinous crimes such as rape and murder. It is proven that Capital punishment lowers the murder rate and just its use as a retribution alone is good enough reason for handing out death sentences. The debates over the merits of capital punish has endured for years, and continues to be an extremely indecisive and complicated issue. Society must be kept safe from these killers by taking away their function in our society, but at the same time we must ensure that the innocent people are never convicted or sentenced to death for a crime that they did not commit. Perhaps the most frequent argument for capital punishment is that of deterrence. The prevailing thought is that imposition of the death penalty will act to discourage other criminals from committing violent acts. Numerous studies have been created attempting to prove this belief. In addition, with the growing sympathy of modern society, the number of inmates actually put to death is substantially lower than 50 years ago. This fact that it was more safe back then than it is now probably has to due with the fact that in earlier times, where capital punishment was common, the value of life was less, and societies were more barbaric, capital punishment was probably quite acceptable. However, in today's society, which is becoming ever more increasingly humane, and individual rights and due process of justice are held in high accord, the death penalty is becoming an unrealistic form of punishment. Also, with the ever present possibility of mistaken execution, there will remain the question of innocence of those put to death. This decline creates a situation in which the death penalty ceases to be a deterrent when the populace begins to ...