tances included air craft highjacking; treason; murder for hire; murder of a judicial officer, policeman, or fireman in line of duty; and murder by a person with a previous record of violent crime. This decision made it clear that the justices did not consider the death penalty per say to be cruel and unusual punishment in the sense intended by the constitution. (Davis, 196-197). The justices reaffirmed what an unbiased historical and legal analysis would reveal every time that our forefathers were not against Capitol Punishment but against the misapplication of punishment bringing about injustice. Philosophically speaking there is a strange twist in logic to call Capitol Punishment inhuman or cruel. The inhumanity and cruelty was the crime that called for capitol consequences. The inhuman act was performed by the criminal in murder not on the criminal through capitol punishment. It can be argued that if one were to mandate a life sentence for a murderer that it is cruel and inhumane to expose inmates, guards and counselors to a volatile criminal. In fact there are many cases of murderers killing innocent victims while incarcerated. Was it cruel and inhumane to sustain the life of such a criminal so that he was given further opportunity to carry out his evil ways? The worth of the individual is so great that the highest penalty should be attached to those who tamper with the life of even one man. (Geisler, 248). Capitol Punishment has been practiced since the beginning of recorded history in the greatest cultures from Athens in Greece to Rome in Italy. Unfortunately the abuse of capitol punishment throughout history is also well documented. But abuse in any just and good approach does not justify eliminating the practice. Doctors make fatal mistakes and so do politicians but these mistakes do not argue for doing away with the practice of medicine or government. Capitol Punishment should not be performed on anyo...
