The "Death Penalty" and how it relates to the Eight Amendment for my term paper will be discussed in this paper. Capitol punishment has been an interest of mine for many years the interest is the two-fold question of morality and the law. Furthermore, capitol punishment is a debate that will not fade from public attention. As a result of society's strong feelings surrounding this divisive issue.
             Most Americans have made up there minds one way or the other on how they feel about the death penalty. I too, have made my own mind up on how I feel about the topic, however, I will reserve that statement for my closing remarks. Although I have not wavered in my thinking, I have learned much from the debate of this delicate issue.
             In the last two centuries capitol punishment – originally beheading, from the Latin caput (head) or capitis (of the head) – has become the ultimate penalty. In the past twenty years, capitol punishment has been abolished and reinstated, more than one time. For those states that have chosen to reinstate the death penalty, there have been over one hundred executions. Currently there are only six states that have totally abolished capitol punishment. They are Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, and Wisconsin. During my research for this paper I stumbled across the alarming figure of some 16,000 citizens that have died at the hands of the executioner. The earliest recorded was in 1608. Even more alarming, I found that there are over 20,000 murders committed each year in the United States, and as of 1999 our prisons contained a little less than 2000 convicts on death row.
             At this time I would like to discuss the methods that have been carried out in these executions. The United States has employed just about every method of execution imaginable. We've sawed people in half, beheaded them, crushed them with rocks, and have even gone so far as to tie them to a...