murder. Felony murder is any homicide committed in the course of committing another felony, such as rape or robbery. After the 1972 court ruling that all but a few capital statutes were unconstitutional, thirty-seven states revised and reenacted their death penalty laws. In 1989, the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty could be used on those who were mentally retarded or underage (but 16 years and over) at the time of the killing. A trend that the Supreme Court is following is making a cut back on the appeals that death row inmates could make to the federal courts. (Kronenwetter 190-199)
             In the United States, the death penalty is currently authorized in one of five ways: firing squad, hanging, gas chamber, electrocution, and lethal injection. These methods of execution, compared to those of the past, are not meant for torture but meant for the punishment to fit the crime. Throughout history, governments have been extremely inventive in devising ways to execute people. Executions inflicted in the past are now regarded today as ghastly, barbaric, and unthinkable and are forbidden by law almost everywhere. Common historical methods of execution included: stoning, crucifixion, burning, breaking on the wheel, drawing and quartering, peine forte et dure, garroting, beheading or decapitation, shooting, and hanging. These types of punishments today are considered cruel and unusual because we are becoming increasingly humane, individual rights and due process of justice are held in high agreement. The death penalty is becoming an unrealistic form of punishment. This is!
             essentially a dilemma, in which the less the death penalty is used, the less society can legally use it, thus coming in conflict with the eighth amendment. The end result is a punishment that ceases to deter any crime at all. (Kronenwetter 171-178)
             Capital punishment is a legal, practical, philosophical, social, political, and moral question. Most people assume ...