bution for the family of the victim, and because of lack of trust in the judicial system. In the United States, the death penalty has been around since the 1800s. It was mostly used then for conviction of murder. The United States Supreme Court banned the death penalty in 1972, citing that the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Four years later, the same Supreme Court upheld three death sentences from Florida, Georgia, and Texas by ruling that capital punishment wasnot unconstitutionally severe (Zimring 193). The complete turnaround of the U. S. Supreme Court can be credited to state legislatures. After the 1972 decision, many states created new capital punishment laws designed to satisfy the Supreme Courts requirements. These new laws limited a death penalty sentence to murder and crimes that result in a persons death, such as armed robbery, hijacking, and kidnapping. The laws of several states give the specifics as to when a judge or jury may impose the death penalty (Zimring 193). Although the states have regulations on when the death penalty can be imposed, there are no regulations as to why it should be imposed. The death penalty is often used for retribution for the victims family or punishment for the criminal. When the death penalty was first instated, it was intended for use as a deterrent to crime (Foster). As previously stated, the death penalty is not, however, a deterrent to crime, nor has it ever been. In states without the death penalty, six in every one hundred thousand people die of murder. In death penalty states, eight in every one hundred thousand people die of murder (Landauer). Of the sixty-seven current and former presidents of the American Society of Crime, the Law and Society Association, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, ninety percent felt that executio...
