Hunter Chase Bellamy
Advanced Citizenship
Mr. Yeary
8 th amendment and the death penalty
The death penalty is moral, has retribution, and is constitutional. Our country has tried to make the death penalty as humane as possible to agree with the 8 th amendment and become constitutional.
The death penalty is a fair penalty for murder and other high crimes. The death penalty is also moral because they inflict the least amount of pain as possible.
The death penalty is constitutional because it agrees with the 8 th amendment because it is humane. Kentucky has chosen the death penalty because it is humane. As stated by Chief Justice John G.
Roberts (2009), “Kentucky has adopted a method of execution believed to be the most humane available, one it shared with 35 other states … Kentucky’s decision to adhere to its protocol cannot be viewed as probative of the wanton infliction of pain under the 8 th amendment.” We don’t like to use the death penalty but society has forced us to. So we have moved to try to make the executions more humane not only to agree with the 8 th amendment, but to have the guilty treated as people. Also stated by Chief Justice Roberts (2009),”our society has nonetheless moved to more humane methods of carrying out capital punishment.” This is why the death penalty is constitutional. It not only agrees with the 8 th amendment but is also moral in many ways as well.
The death penalty is moral because the criminal feels no pain during the execution. From 1133 people have been put to death by lethal injection. This has been proven painless. We still strive for more moral ways of executions. They also release people from the death penalty if there is evidence of innocence. From 1973 to October 1993 there have been over 130 people released for that reason.

People with mental disabilities can’t be executed. Due to these facts we can say that the death penalty is morally right, but there are also reasons it has retribution as well.
The death penalty is fair and just in many ways. It is only used for really high crimes such as murder. In the case of cocker v. Georgia Erlich Coker was serving under a sentence of murder, rape, assault, and kidnapping. Then he escaped from jail and raped a woman, kidnapped her, stole her car and was then put to death. The criminals deserve their punishment. As professor of government and philosophy at the University of Texas stated (2009), “Society is justly ordered when each person receives what is due to them.” The death penalty has retribution due to it being fair and only used for supreme crimes. These are my main reasons for being pro-death penalty. Let’s recap on those main points again.
The death penalty is constitutional because it agrees with the 8 th amendment. It is moral because the criminals don’t feel pain and can’t be executed while having a mental disability. And it has retribution because it is only used for supreme or high crimes. These are the reasons I believe the death penalty is right. When the constitution was made they had wrote the 8 th amendment for cruel punishments, but the death penalty is right because its reserved for supreme crimes and is morally right.

Reference page
ProCon.org. (2009, April 13). Top 10 pros and cons. Retrieved from http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.recource.php?recourceID=002000
ProCon.org. (2013, may 3). Did you know? Retrieved from http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.recource.php?recourceID=001631
ProCon.org. (2013, June 6). Is the death penalty unconstitutional? Retrieved from http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.recources.php?recourcesID=001715