Honors Composition I 08/27/01
             · Capital punishment provides the most complete retribution and condemnation
             · The threat of execution is a unique deterrent
             · Capital punishment self-evidently prevents more crime because death is more feared than mere restrictions on one's liberty
             · Capital punishment is less costly than a life time of incarceration
             · Capital punishment is the only way to fully ensure that a homicidal individual cannot kill again
             · Approximately 66% of today's Americans are in favor of capital punishment over life imprisonment
             · Violent crime in America has decreased by the hundreds of thousands between 1999 and 2000 as the U.S. executed 98 prisoners (the most since 1951) in '99 and have 3.5K on death row
             · Mental Retardation or legal insanity does not ensure that the condemned will not participate in violent crimes or kill again, in prison or in society
             · Most of the top industrialized nations still condemn their most violent criminals to death
             · The message sent by capital punishment is to obey the law or die
             · Most prisoner on death row are white males
             § Is capital punishment an effective deterrent of violent crimes?
             § Should a murderer be allowed to live out his life when he, himself sentenced his victims to death?
             § Should the families of the victims have a voice in what is to become of the assailant?
             § Should all persons convicted of 1st degree murder, regardless of circumstances, be subject to capital punishment?
             § Can the death penalty be used to control the prison population by eliminating offenders who murder while incarcerated or violent criminal who escape, as means to protect the general public?
             § Would public executions further deter crime and therefore reduce the number of executions by sending a vivid message of "No ...