"I really don't have a problem seeing it. It's more like watching an animal die."
(K. Runnels, waiting to witness the execution of her father's murderer)

“Executions do not have to cost that much. We could hang them and re-use the rope. No cost! Or we could use firing squads and ask for volunteer firing squad members who would provide their own guns and ammunition. Again, no cost.”
(Ch. Clem, Tennessee House Representative)

"You always lose some soldiers in any war."
(Sen. D. Jaye, R-Washington Township, commenting on the risk of executing an innocent)

A Bit Of History

The history of the death penalty begins in the territory now known as the United States of America with the first known execution of Daniel Frank who was put to death in 1622 in the Colony of Virginia for the crime of theft.
From 1930, the first year for which statistics are readily available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, to 1967, 3,859 persons were executed under civil jurisdiction in the United States. During this period over half (54%) of those executed were black, 45 % were white, and the remaining 1% were members of other racial groups - American Indians (a total of 19 executed from 1930-1967), Filipino (13), Chinese (8), and Japanese (2). The vast majority of those executed were men. 32 women were executed from 1930 to 1967.
By the end of the 1960s, all but 10 states had laws authorizing capital punishment, but strong pressure by forces opposed to the death penalty resulted in an unofficial moratorium on executions for several years, with the last execution during this period taking place in 1967.
In 1976 the Supreme Court in the Gregg vs. Georgia decision reinstated the capital punishment.
From 1977 to 1999, a total of 598 executions took place. Of the executed prisoners during this period, 374 were white, 213 were black and 11 were of other races (see picture 1). By the end of 1997, 38 states and the federal government had capital punishment law, 12 states (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin - and the District of Columbia) had no death penalty.

Proponents And Opponents

Every coin has two sides and speaking about the death penalty, there are also two groups of people that
provide antagonistic opinions on this subject. In a very simple way these two groups argues whether it is “good
or bad” to execute a person for a crime. Here are some of their main opinions:
I.