eated. They also believe that prison keeps dangerous criminals away from society just as well as having them killed. Those who support the death penalty argue that the fact that the lives of the criminals are being taken intimidates potential killers. Unfortunately according to a recent survey of police chiefs and sheriffs, the death penalty ranks last as a way of reducing violent crime. Patrick V. Murphy, former police chief of New York, Washington, and Detroit says that, "Police chiefs would rather spend their limited crime-fighting dollars on such proven measures as community policing, more police training, neighborhood watch programs and long prison sentences." Many people try to fight the government and pursue the changing of laws concerning the death penalty. Instead of forcing the changes in law a Roman Catholic nun from Brooklyn, Sister Camille D'Arienzo started the Declaration of Life movement in 1994. The ever growing movement involves a pledge. The pledge states that in the case of being the victim of a murder they want the killer to be punished but not killed. "Capital punishment is the only time we punish the person in kind for a crime. We don't rape the rapist or rob the robber, but we kill the killer," says Sister D'Arienzo, insisting that death is not the answer for society's ills. Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and U.S. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, whose husband was gunned down in a New York commuter train, are some of the more recognizable members of the movement.Many of those who are anti death penalty believe that the execution themselves are cruel and unusual. The more common styles of execution are the gas chamber and lethal injection. Both are considered the softer of the approved execution methods. The more talked about method used in the United States is the electric chair. It is the more talked about due to the problems it sometimes encounters. There have been accounts of people li...
