The Death Penalty

My topic is the death penalty. Before doing my research I questioned should the death penalty be banned in the United States. I surveyed twenty-five of my classmates and ten percent of my class agreed to ban the death penalty and the rest disagreed. One student that thought the death penalty should be banned said "too many people will want the death penalty out of anger". Another student that thought the death penalty shouldn't be banned said "It helps with criminals". As I went on with my research I came up with three questions I wanted to answer. One of those questions is Where did the death penalty originate? The nest question is Where is the death penalty forbidden? The last question is Where is the death penalty legal? When I started to search the web I found three sources that would help me with the questions I had. When I received information from those selected sites I took out six quotes that stood out to me. One of the things I found out that I didn’t know before I had done the research is that the death penalty laws date far back as the eighteenth century. It was unbelievable to me how long the death penalty had been going on and how the death penalty is different from what it used to be. In the old days they used to hang people, burn them or just torture them until they died now its five different methods of the death penalty. The five methods is the lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad and the old way which is hanging. Hanging is not used as a death penalty anymore but since the death penalty still exists they use more of the lethal injections. Another fact I learned is that the death penalty is authorized in 37 states, the federal government and the U.S. military. Before I did my research I thought people could only get the death penalty in small towns  but I learned that it is popular in a lot of places. There are only 13 states and the District of Columbia that are without the death penalty, those states are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Also when I think about the death penalty I automatically think that only men can get the death penalty but I found out I was wrong. As of April 1, 2012 there were 61 women on death row. Even though there are more men than women on death row I was surprised at the crimes most of these women had committed. I also learned that there are more Caucasian and African American men being executed than any other race. I was very surprised then again it was kind of expected for some reason.  
               When researching my topic I also learned the controversy that the death penalty brings. One controversy surrounding my topic is that it’s a lot of people that think the death penalty is unlawful and I agree. A lot people said that it is because it’s an act of murder and some people are just saying its right because they have to be punished. I believe someone should be punished for their actions but death should never be the answer. Everyone deserves to live and putting someone in jail for life is enough. Seeing the death penalty from everyone else’s view opened my eyes to both sides in a way. I learned that the death penalty is seen as a good or bad thing to most people because in most states that’s all people know and if the death penalty becomes frequent it becomes normal. Where I’m from its not really that common so I don’t see it as being normal I see it as murder. So when doing my research my research my opinion about the death penalty didn’t really change but I did learn about the different views, the different types of death penalty and the controversy.