capital punishment in the usa

Capital Punishment in the USA
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Capital Punishment in the US
In the constitution, every crime matches with a penalty administered according to the requirements of the jurisdiction in which it is committed. One such crime classifications include capital offenses (The Death Penalty, 2014). These include murder, robbery with violence, treason, and espionage. The penalty that is used to punish offenders who commit crimes of this degree is called capital punishment. In the United States, 30 states together with the military apply this penalty. The country’s federal constitution legalizes capital punishment.
The commonly used capital punishment is the death penalty. The United States federal law allows the death penalty in cases that the criminal is pronounced guilty beyond reasonable doubt of a capital offense. The US is the only country in the western world which allows the death penalty. The United States is also the first nation in the world to use lethal injection in the process of execution. That was to replace the conventional means such as hanging and use of a guillotine. The traditional techniques are still in use in many nations. There exist various techniques for executing capital crime convicts. The most commonly used method that has been in use up to the beginning of the 20th century is hanging (The Death Penalty, 2014). However, it brought about various unexpected results such as the convict becoming decapitated before dying resulting in its replacement.

The country resolved into coming, and the electric chair gained popularity. However, the authorities disregarded the method following claims that it was overly painful and sometimes the convict took so long to die. Hydrogen cyanide chambers were then adopted but later on their use slowed. That was after claims that the gas sometimes would fail hence causing immense pain. Today, the lethal injection is the most commonly used technique in the United States. There has been a change regarding the kind of crimes that were considered to be capital in the olden days. In the colonial times when the United States was colonized by the British, there was an average of 48 capital offenses. These include things like a constant criticism of the British government, picking flowers from neighbors without their consent, and stealing of food irrespective of the reason behind it.
The laws were so rash to the extent of convicting people on allegations of practicing witchcraft. Those who were hit hardest by the execution law were slaves who had no rights. They would be killed for committing the pettiest crimes. The first individual to be executed was an army general who was found to be spying for the Spanish authorities. There have been other executions over the years although some states have by now abolished the penalty (The Death Penalty, 2014). In those cases, the serving death sentences were instead made to serve life imprisonment. The primary reason for eliminating the punishment was that activists and some jurists considered it to be inhuman. Recently, legalization of the death sentence occurred in 1976, and since then, about 7800 people have been sentenced to death. Among these, only 1400 have been killed.
In a nutshell, the US considers capital punishment to be legal. However, there has been an improvement in the means of its implementation. Instead of the tradition means that prolonged the killing procedure making it torturous for the convict, the country now implements swift techniques that deliver results in minutes. An example of such a method is lethal injection. Currently, there are developments on the most appropriate methodologies, and trials that are ongoing.
Reference
The Death Penalty in united states of America. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.deathpenaltyworldwide.org/country-search-post.cfm?country=united+states+of+america