The death penalty is a necessary evil that has a positive effect on society
             today. It is an effective deterent of crime as well as a safeguard for
             society. It also helps to keep order in our cities. Furthermore, I fell it
             is a just and effective punishment for those who have commited crimes heinous
             The death penalty is not a new idea in our world. Its origins date back over
             3,700 years to the Babylonian civilization, where it was prescribed for a
             variety of crimes. (Capital Punishment p.10). It was also greatly used in the
             Greek and Roman empires. It continued into England during the Middle Ages,
             and then to the American colonies where it exists still today. In the
             colonies, death was a prescribed punishment for crimes such as: murder, rape,
             arson, and perjury. In America today, the main crime deserving death is
             obviously murder. (Capital Punishment p.11-15).
             Does the death penalty truly deter crimes and murder? This question is at
             the heart of a heated political controversy over the punishment. Opposers to
             the death penalty say no because of the large amount of people on death row
             today. They also say that states that have the death penalty have a higher
             crime rate than those that do not, and therefore it is not effective and
             somewhat contributes to the problem. (http://www.rit.edu/~wwl2461/cp.html). I
             must point out though that states that have the death penalty are usually
             highly urbanized areas that most likely will have high crime rates because of
             the large population. Rather, in rural states there is no need for the death
             penalty because the population is most likely low and scattered throughout the
             region. States that practice capital punishment do so because of high crime
             rates, not vice versa. (http://www.rit.edu/~wwl2461/cp.html). Abolitionists
             also state that the death penalty is a racist punishment, and only given to
             African Americans. In the May 11, 1998
             ...