The Death Penalty

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think that occasionally we can have a discussion of a more serious nature. My thoughts on the death penalty which unfortunately mostly no longer exists in many states is that what you do to another person should be done right back to you and the end of that. Happy dancing with the devil but who am I to say there may be other who are of another opinion. Let’s take a look at how the death penalty came about and how it also ended. Many years ago a man named Giuseppe Zangara shot the Mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak. This happened in Miami, Florida on February 15, 1933. The shots that Zangara fired missed President-elect Franklin Roosevelt, who was with Cermak at that time. As a result Cermak died of his wounds on March 6. Zangara was indicted and arraigned for murder. Once he pled guilty he was placed on the electric chair two weeks later on March 20. Today such a quick turnabout is unknown. Changes to the death penalty started in the 1950s when Caryl Chessman, a convicted robber, kidnapper and rapist spent practically 12 years on death row in California before he went to the gas chamber in 1960 for kidnapping. During this time Chessman made many appeals, had three books published and drew attention to himself from Hollywood and the international community, who then lobbied publicly on his behalf. He became one of the last Americans to be executed for a crime other than murder. Afterward criminals had to spend many years on death row before meeting their maker. Jerry Joe Bird, who murdered a man also became quite ill during this time. He was finally given the lethal injection in Texas in 1991 having spent 17 years on death row. Then two inmates sitting on death row for 20 years made an appeal to the Supreme Court saying that this long wait was itself a cruel and unusual punishment. The court did not hear the appeal saying that the prisoners most likely themselves had caused this delay. My thoughts are that it is wrong to keep convicted criminals on death row for so long. First of all they still live and exist while their victims are long in the ground and second it takes a considerable amount of money to keep them fed and provide them with the essentials during the waiting time. I also feel that it makes it hard on the friends and relatives of the victims just knowing that their loved one or loved ones are gone and the criminal is still alive and well even though on death row. As of 2015 28 inmates were executed in six U.S. States and 2,984 inmates were still sitting on death row. What are your thoughts on the death penalty?