Certain Modern Methods Of Capital Punishment example essay topic

Societies all over the globe have been using capital punishment for thousands of years. It has always been considered a relatively cheap and effective way to punish the offender and effectively remove him or her from society. Although the methods of carrying it out have slowly gotten more humane over the centuries, it is still alive and well in modern culture. While capital punishment is the most extreme punishment imaginable, barring torture, it is also the most efficient and logical way to deal with many criminals today and their inexplicable crimes against humanity.

It not only removes the criminal from society, helping to protect the rest of it's citizens, but it also saves a large amount of tax dollars that would otherwise be spent on keeping the subject incarcerated for a long period of time. Yes, certain modern methods of capital punishment such as lethal injection may be expensive, considering the price of some of the chemicals and equipment used, but it is minuscule in comparison to the cost of paying for someone's food, shelter, clothing, and other things for the next 50-60 years or so. Throughout history, traditional methods of execution have often been somewhat cruel and / or barbaric. In medieval Europe for example, subjects were often beheaded with a large battle ax. This proved to be somewhat inefficient and often put it's victims through intense agony and suffering in their final living moments. Often times the executioner's blade might not have been totally sharpened, requiring several hacks to completely sever the subject's neck.

Other times the executioner might have missed the person's neck altogether and sunk the blade into their head. Obviously this would have been extremely unpleasant. A more humane and efficient method of beheading was begotten with the French Revolution invention of the guillotine. Other popular methods of capital punishment used by governments in the past several centuries include hanging, death by firing squad, and electrocution.

However, in a society like that which we have today in the United States, methods like that go against our basic constitutional rights and cannot be used. The most widely-used method today is lethal injection, usually done by injecting a solution of Potassium Chloride, is much more humane then any previous methods of execution. It is said the victim feels nothing and the experience is just like falling into a deep sleep. This is a relatively generous method of execution, especially when one considers the horrible ways the criminals themselves often torture and murder their victims.

I would almost say it is too good for them. But we live in a civilized society of laws and fairness, and as the old saying goes "two wrongs don't make a right". In the end, inmates who have committed such crimes should be grateful they are spared the rest of their lives being imprisoned. They should be grateful they are given such a quick and painless death instead of something more torturous. It does them a service (which by all rights they most likely do not deserve) and it does a service to the rest of society, not having to worry about their safety any longer, as least as far as that criminal is concerned, and also saves a good deal of taxpayer money..