Outline - Capital Punishment

1. If you kill someone does that make it okay for you to be killed? Capital punishment is something that is going on in all countries. All countries have considered it and either abolished it or decided that it is constitutional. If someone rapes, murders, abuses or sexually abuses someone does that make it okay for them to be punished as well? Should they recieve the electric chair or should they recieve lethal injections? Is it constitutional or unconstitutional?
2. The History of Capital Punishment
A. The United States has mixed feelings about the death penalty
1. 13 states that don’t agree with capital punishment
A. all states agree with the death penalty except for Wisconsin, Hawaii, Alaska, Main, Iowa, Michigan, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Vermont, West Virgina, Rhode Island
B. Once a jury has convicted a criminal offense they go to the second part of the trial, the punishment phase
1. The most common form of capital punishment is lethal injections
2. There is also the electric chair which is still used in some states today
C. Harshest form of punishment enforced in the United Sates today
D. Each year there are more than 200 people that are put on death row.
1. According to the Death Penalty Info Center 3, 350 people are currently on death row
2. California has the largest number with 660 people
E. capital punishment was once ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
1. cruel and unusual punishment under the eighth amendment.
2. This was voted against and voted out when lethal injections came
3. Instead of being executed there was a wait (seven to eight years)
II. The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution
A. Problems that can occur with the death penalty
1. The person may not be proven guilty yet but is still placed on death row
III. Guards of Capital Punishment
A. Some people feel that innocent people will be wrongfully executed
1. Juveniles, pregnant women, girls who are minors will not be put on death row
2. The facts have to be there in order for someone to be put on death row
3. Can not inflict suffering on a person
IV. Juveniles and Capital Punishment
A. Juveniles under the age of 18 can not be sentenced to capital punishment
B. in 1642 there were 364 juvenile offenders that were executed. It has been signed and ratified by the United states and some other countries that this is unconstitutional for a juvenile to be sentenced to the death penalty.