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 According to Encyclopedia Britannica Online, the death penalty has been defined as “ execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a criminal offense...should be distinguished from extrajudicial executions carried out without due process of law ” (Hood). media type="youtube" key="1htDY230jx4" height="349" width="425" align="center" **21st Century Social Justice Issue** In the 21st century, the death penalty is a social justice issue in America because America finds itself amongst countries with primitive and torterous forms of execution. With America as one of the only democractic nations to continue to enfore the death penalty, the issue has arised of what separates us of these other countries. Why, as a country at the forefront of innovation, have we fallen behind modern times? Should we not be leading, instead of sticking with an ancient and primal actions, with a long history of torture and abuse? While this issue does not affect everyone directly, American citizens and taxpayers are affected every year when they must pay taxes on the facilities and methods of execution. However, it is not a one-sided issue; it is not necessarily cheaper to go without taxes for the death penalty, since citizens also must pay for basic jail costs. But this issue is a concern of both moral soundness and a decision made based on material possessions and wealth. Today, figures such as Stanley "Tookie" Williams, a man who turned his life around on death row, stand as controversial individuals for the death penalty, showing the possible faults in the system. **History** The act of execution as punishment has dated back to the initial states of recorded time in civilizations around the globe. In 18th century BCE, the Hammurabi code, one of the first written codes of law in recorded history, codified the death penalty for twenty five different crimes although ironically murder wasn’t one of them. The first death sentence historically recorded occurred 200 years later in 16th century BCE Egypt where the criminal, a member of nobility, was accused of magic and ordered to take his own life. During this period non-nobility were usually killed with an ax. Subsequently, the Hittite code prescribed the death penalty in 14th century BCE and the 7th century BCE Draconian Code of Athens had made death the penalty for every crime committed ("History of the Death Penalty"). Death was not assigned to the same crimes as they are today. It was biased towards the nobility and harsh against freemen and slaves who would be killed for committing crimes such as insulting songs, cutting or grazing crops planted by a farmer, burning a stack of corn near a house, or making disturbances at night in the city according to the 5th century BCE Roman Law of the Twelve Tablets (Reggio). Death was often cruel and included crucifixion, drowning at sea, burial alive, beating to death, and impalement. Different societies had unique practices, like the Romans who punished those who murdered a parent by submerging them in water, in a sack which also contained a dog, a rooster, a viper and an ape (Reggio). One of the most notorious death executions before common era (BCE) was the death of the famous philosopher Socrates. PBS found that Britain influenced the colonies more than any other country and has a long history of punishment by death. Under the reign of Henry VIII, the numbers of those put to death are estimated as high as 72,000. During these middle ages, capital punishment was accompanied with torture. Burning was the punishment for women’s high treason and men were hanged, drawn, and quartered. Pressing became the penalty for those who would not confess their crimes. Boiling to death was approved in 1531 and records show of some people being boiled for up to two hours before death took them. Beheading was generally accepted for the upper classes, a famous example of this method was King Henry VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn who was decapitated for committing high treason and adultery. In Britain, two hundred and twenty-two crimes were punishable by death during the 1700s. Reforms began to take place in the nineteenth and twentieth century’s as more and more governments abolished capital punishment; then in 2006, Britain also abolished the death penalty (Reggio).  The United States, unlike Britain, has continued the use of the death penalty today. According to The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney, the first recorded execution in the English American colonies was in 1608 when officials executed George Kendall of Virginia for supposedly plotting to betray the British to the Spanish. In 1622, the first legal execution of a criminal, Daniel Frank, occurred in Virginia for the crime of theft ("Capital Punishment Timeline"). By 1776, most of the states had roughly comparable death statutes which covered arson, piracy, treason, murder, sodomy, burglary, robbery, rape, horse-stealing, slave rebellion, and often counterfeiting ("Capital Punishment Timeline"). The first reforms of the death penalty occurred between 1776-1800 when Thomas Jefferson and four others, authorized to undertake a complete revision of Virginia's laws, proposed a law that recommended the death penalty for only treason and murder. After a stormy debate the legislature defeated the bill by one vote. Many reforms like such were initiated, some to decrease the numbers of capital offenses, and some to increase ("Capital Punishment Timeline"). <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">By the 1800s, New York, Virginia, Kentucky, Vermont, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Ohio reduced the number of capital offenses. However a few states went the opposite direction. Rhode Island restored the death penalty for rape and arson; also, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut raised death crimes from six to ten ("Capital Punishment Timeline"). <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">In the nineteenth century, the first great reform era (1833-1853), public executions were attacked as cruel and by 1849 fifteen states enacted laws providing private hangings ("Capital Punishment Timeline"). <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype',serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">By early 1975, thirty states had again passed death penalty laws and nearly two hundred prisoners were on death row ("Capital Punishment Timeline"). The controversy over the death penalty continues today where each state has formed its own path, either continuing to use death penalty as a method of punishment or abolishing it. <span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">** State-to-State in America ** According to the Death Penalty Information Center, certain laws and regulations, such as age limit, or method of execution, vary from state to state, and many states do not use the death penalty as means of punishment at all. In the United States, capital punishment mainly applies to cases of aggravated murder, and in some rare cases, felony murder ("Facts about the Death Penalty"). Aggravation, in law, is "any circumstance attending the commission of a crime or tort which increases its guilt or enormity or adds to its injurious consequences, but which is above and beyond the essential constituents of the crime or tort itself" (Black), but even aggravating circumstances differ between each state. <span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">**Politics in America** Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, capital punishment has been present throughout America. In 1790, the Eighth Amendment was written; this Amendment would later become the strongest argument against capital punishment as it states that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” ("U.S. Constitution"). In 1958, the Supreme Court interpreted the Eighth Amendment's 'cruel and unusual punishment' through the "evolving standard of decency that marks the progress of a maturing society" (Warren) while reviewing the case of Trop v. Dulles. The Eighth Amendment would again become apparent in the Furman v Georgia case, when the U.S. Supreme Court found that the death penalty laws were unconstitutional as these laws were deemed cruel and unusual punishment and in violation of the Eighth Amendment (Reggio). This and other similar cases in the late seventies lead to many major reforms that vary from state to state. Some of these changes include new guidelines for juries sentencing the death penalty along with certain crime requirements in order to be eligible for the death penalty and some states have abolished capital punishment completely. In 1999, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act known as "The Crime Bill" added 60 federal crimes that can receive the death penalty taking a step back for American citizens who oppose the death penalty ("Violent Crime Control..."). media type="youtube" key="fxAudC_hkRk" height="349" width="425" align="center"

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">**Religious Standpoints** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;"> Religions such as Christianity, Mormonism, and Buddhism have each general guidelines following the death penalty that state that they are against it all together, except in extreme cases where killing that one individual would maintain the well-being of the common good and save more lives than it took (Robinson). For example, as voice of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II stated that punishment "ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent”(Pope John Paul II). This basically means that Catholicism is opposed to capital punishment, except when the execution of an individual will stop them from hurting many more people, in cases like this, it may be wiser to execute them than to let them follow through and take out a large sum of people. The Catholic Church would prefer the capital punishment to be avoided entirely unless able to protect society from the specific offender. On the other hand, there are a couple religions that support the death penalty and back their views up including Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. To avoid possible execution of innocent people, Rabbinic tradition created a detailed system of checks and balances. In these laws, it is stated that, there must have been two witnesses to the crime; witness must have warned the person that they would get the death penalty; the person must acknowledge that they were warned, and no individual can testify against him or herself. A majority of those in favor of the death penalty believe it is acceptable if the law deems it necessary. In the massive debate over whether or not the death penalty should be abolished for good overwhelming support for abolishment comes from majority of religions ("Religion and the Death Penalty"). <span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">**Foreign Policies** According to Amnesty International, and as mentioned in the history above, the death penalty is present in more countries than just the United States, in fact the United States is only one of forty-one countries maintaining the death penalty in both law and practice. On the other hand, ninety-five of the 193 independent countries that are a part of the UN (nearly 49%), have abolished the death penalty entirely. The United States is the fifth highest enforcer of the death penalty, having executed forty-six people in 2010, but that number pales in comparison to the number of executions held in China in 2010, over 2000. In fact, in the continent of Asia, 44% of the fifty-five countries that make up that continent still maintain the death penalty in both law and practice. On the other end of the spectrum, the continent of Europe maintains that highest percentage of their countries, 92% (forty-six of the fifty countries of Europe), have abolished the death penalty entirely. In Europe, there is only one country that continues to enforce the death penalty, Belarus, who only performed two executions in 2010 (Amnesty International). <span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">The leading executioner in the continent of Africa is the Libya, although recently there have been moves towards abolition, with only over eighteen executions in 2010. In the Americas (North and South America included), the United States is the leading executioner, performing forty-six executions in 2010, and the United States carries out more executions than any other liberal democracy. Four countries in Asia are the leading executioners, taking spots one through four, all four of them beating out the United States. In 2010, China performed over 2000, Iran performed over two-hundred and two, North Korea over sixty, and Yemen with over fifty-three (Amnesty International). <span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">**Three Open-Ended Discussion Questions** <span style="font: 12pt/150% Palatino Linotype; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0ex; text-transform: none; word-spacing: normal;">1. Is the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment? 2. Should the death penalty be a viable punishment for those who are diagnosed as mentally unstable? 3. Should individuals on death row be given the same chance for rehabilitation as those sentenced to life in prison? <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -10000px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; position: absolute; top: 3584px; width: 1px;">