Death Penalty

Brenda Castañeda
3/7/14
Death Penalty

Death penalty is probably one of the most controversial punishments that can be applied to those who break the law. There are many people that support this punishment, but there is also a large amount against it. The reason why this huge problem has not been solved yet is because there is no right or wrong answer to this situation. In this essay I’m going to talk about death penalty’s characteristics, the way it has developed in different countries such as China, United States, and Peru; and finally my personal opinion.
The Oxford Dictionary defines the death penalty as “a punishment of execution administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime”.   Crimes that can be punished by a death penalty are called capital crimes or capital offenses.   The term capital comes from the Latin capitalis that means regarding the head, and it refers to the execution by decapitaton. In the past, this punishment was practiced by nearly all societies. These death sentences were usually accompanied by some kind of torture and most of them were made publicly.
There are five different methods of execution: lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging and firing squad. The most common method that is used today is the lethal injection. This consists in the injection of a deadly quantity of three different drugs: sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. Electrocution involves using the application of electric current to the inmate causing brain death. The inmate is attached to an electric chair and receives a charge between 1500 and 2250 volts for 30 seconds to a minute. In the gas chamber, the inmate is executed by lethal gas, which is a mix of hydrochloric acid with other compounds. Firing squad involves a group of shooters; this method is particularly common in the military and in times of war.

Most of the countries in the world no longer practice this punishment, the death penalty. There is no...