The Death Penalty
             "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Everyone has heard this saying in there life. This is another way for someone to say they are supportive of the death penalty. The death penalty, to me, is revenge. It kills innocent people every year. Many of the families of victims do not want the criminals to be put to death. The death penalty costs more than a life sentence in jail. It is also racists.
             "Since 1976, there have been six hundred sixty-seven executions in the United States, ninety-eight in 1999 alone. There was only eleven before 1984. Then the number rose to twenty-one that year. The number of execution stayed around twenty then dropped to eleven in 1988. Then it steadily rose from there to seventy-four executions in 1997. That was the highest since 1976."(Death Penalty Information Center website)
             There are many different methods of execution used by the government. The most common is lethal injection used by thirty-seven states. Electrocution is another method, which is used by eleven states. The gas chamber is used in five states. There are still three states today that use hanging as a method of execution. And three other states use a firing squad. If you add up the numbers they do not equal out to fifty states. This is because some states have multiple methods.
             The death penalty is also extremely racist. There have been significantly more executions of minorities than white Americans. Capital punishment also goes against the Constitution of the United States. Amendments eight and fourteen: state that no cruel and unusual punishment can be inflicted, and no state can deprive any person of life liberty or property. The death penalty clearly takes these privileges away from American citizens.
             "More than 2000 people are on death row today. Virtually all are poor, a significant number are mentally retarded or other wise mentally disabled. More than forty percent are African American and uneven number...