What is capital punishment? Is it the failed attempt at constitutionality? Or is it a proper legal justification sending a belligerent warning to society? By definition according to www.law.cornell.edu capital punishment  is “the state-sanctioned punishment of executing an individual for a specific crime “and by definition according to oxford dictionary constitutionality is “the quality of being in accordance with a political constitution” .…I’m not too certain the decision of who lives or dies is constitutional or the duty of man, as  I was taught as a child we are to be vessels of equality, for who are a group of individuals labeled “jury” to decide when or how anybody should live or die? It just doesn’t doesn’t scream constitutionality or land of the free.  I just continue to ask myself who are we as humans to play judge, jury, and executioners without questioning the level of ethics, mortality, or our place and purpose as a species, nation, and society. Essentially, I will be in search of what articles books, films and interviews might help me understand the qualifications/standards being met contributing to death row sentencing and the debate on capital punishment and its constitutionality. 

  The United States is one of 54 advanced democratic western countries worldwide to rely on application of said punishment, while 27 states in the U.S have capital punishment as a legal penalty only 20 states are allowed to execute death sentences. Lethal injections are the most commonly used method in executions and while they are lethal sedatives are administered before execution with hopes and intent of preventing any unnecessary harm or anguish. For almost 500 years dating back to 1608 British American colonies first relied on capital punishment in aid of the execution of a spy for the Spanish government and for the 400 years succeeding according to M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla’s “Executions in the unites states, 1608-2002” the number of executions amounted to 15,269 … an obscene number of lives taken, unethical or justifiable?…

Watt, Espy M. Smykla, John Executions in the United States, 1608-2002: The Espy File Fourth ICPSR Edition., standord.edu., 2004., https://stanford.edu/group/ssds/dewidocs/icpsr8451/cb8451.pdf

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/death_penalty#:~:text=The%20death%20penalty%20is%20the,individual%20for%20a%20specific%20crime.