In ancient times the death penalty was a foundation for the Law of Herod, Lex Talionis, and the ever quotable "an eye for an eye...." Capital punishment is the execution of a person convicted of committing a crime so heinous that certain societies feel there is no retribution short of death to its perpetrator. The issue of capital punishment is a debate with extremely passionate and heavily conflicted oppositions. The arguments on both sides of the issue cross ethnic, racial, religious, economic and geographical boundaries.
             Beyond the emotional aspects and questionable morality of taking an individual's life as payment for a crime, the question remains, does it work? No one can deny that the death penalty is an absolute. The punishment is 100% with no remediation. However, does it deter crime, and is the penalty of death justifiable conduit of the penal system if there is a chance of a wrongful conviction. More than 3,533 people are presently on death row (as of April 1, 2003). The majority of those condemned to death row are of low income households; a significant number are mentally retarded or mentally disabled; more than 40 percent are African American; and a disproportionate number are Native American, Latino and Asian. The death penalty arguments most often made (for or against) revolve around the economics to maintain a death row, and the bias (be it racial, gender, or economical) within the criminal justice system, in specific when verdicts determine if someone lives or dies.
             The goal of this essay is to present an insight into the statistics and facts in which one can form an educated perspective in regards to the most absolute form of punishment in the U.S. Criminal Justice System.
             Prominent in the death penalty argument is often the economics of sustaining a life in prison versus fulfilling the sentence of death. This argument is the least personal of the death penalty issues and, thus, oft...