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Persuasive Essay On The Death Penalty

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The death penalty is a very controversial topic in the United States. Capital punishment is the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. The first established laws on this penalty date as far back as the eighteenth century B.C. (Deathpenaltyinfo). The death penalty was suspended from 1972 – 1976. Since its reinstatement in 1976, 1,458 people have been executed (CNN). Capital punishment is cruel because it fits the definition, it is the murder of humans and is irreversible. When you look up the definition, dictionary.com defines it as “willfully or knowingly causing pain or distress to others”. This describes the death penalty. It is knowingly murdering a person. The cruel act of taking the life of a person …show more content…

Crystals of sodium cyanide are then dropped into the pail which causes a reaction to occur and release hydrogen cyanide. In this case, the inmate dies from lack of oxygen to their brain. Additionally, the inmate can be killed by a firing squad. In this instance, like every other, the inmate is strapped to a chair. A doctor locates his or her heart and marks it with a target. Then, five shooters fire at the target, killing him or her from blood loss. The last method is hanging. A noose is put around the prisoners neck as they stand above a trap door. Once the door is opened, the prisoner falls and their weight causes their neck to fracture, but they do not die instantaneously, the death comes from the slow suffocation. All of these methods are cruel punishments. Executing the death penalty an irreversible act. It takes the life of a human being. The death penalty is excessive because replaced by the prisoner being sentenced to life without parole. one in every 25 defendants sentenced to death is likely innocent(ACLU). An example of this is Brian Terrell. He was convicted in 1955 for murder(Deathpenaltyinfo). After three trials, Terrell was sentenced to death and executed in 2015(Deathpenaltyinfo)
. However, whether or not he was innocent is still up in the air. Defense investigators say that Terrell’s cousin Jermaine Johnson, who gave a testimony against Brian, later admitted that he gave a false testimony(Deathpenaltyinfo).

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