In 1846, Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty (“States With and Without the Death Penalty”). Since, there has been twenty states that have either abolished or overturned the death penalty. There are only thirty states that remain to use the death penalty, which includes the United States Government and Military (“States With and Without the Death Penalty”). There are five different methods of the death penalty; lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and hanging (“Death Penalty ProCon.org.”). The most commonly used method is lethal injection in which they give an inmate three doses of drugs; an anesthetic or a sedative, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride which the drugs paralyze them and slowly stops their heart (“Lethal Injection”). The notion of the death penalty is that is too cruel of a punishment. The most common criminal punishments under the death penalty is murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery, and treason (“Death Penalty …show more content…
With the use of capital punishment, the criminal being sentenced to the death penalty would help society in knowing that they wouldn’t be able to harm anyone or anything anymore. It preserves the government of law and order. It would overall decrease the crime rates with it being implemented, but it’s not the answer to crimes not being committed. For the government, it would be less expensive for them to keep them in jail for life over ending their life. It would also create more room for the government to hold more inmates if they used the death penalty which would create them more money (Gibson, Kyle). Ultimately, it keeps them off the street and offers families or victims to have some type of vengeance against their attacker. The family would be protected from the criminal and them ever coming at them again. They would be able to know that their attacker would not be able to harm them no longer. Although, the family would be protected from the criminal, there could be a possibility of the criminal’s family and friends retaliating which could mean that they may never be fully safe with or without the criminal being sentenced to the death