Allie Stough - Paper

I am opposed to the death penalty. I feel that it is immoral to kill someone. If we can’t kill someone with a gun then why can we kill someone with the death penalty? It puts too much burden on the person who has to perform the act of the death penalty. I feel that the person who committed the crime should stay in jail for life with no opportunity for parole. It gives them their whole life to think about what they have done. The death penalty today is performed differently than it was in The Green Mile. Death by the electric chair is rarely done today, instead it is done by lethal injection. Only about half of the world uses any form of the death penalty for certain offences. The death penalty has been changed over time. In the 18^th century B.C. people were killed with an ax. In 399 B.C. Socrates was required to drink poison for heresy and corruption of youth. In the 5^th century some typical forms of capital punishment included: crucifixion, drowning at sea, burial alive, beating to death and killing by the intrusion of a sharp object. Romans who killed their parents were put in a sack with a dog, rooster, snake and ape and submersed in water. In 1608 the first recorded execution was in the English colonies when George Kendall of Virginia was plotting to betray the British to the Spanish. Finally in 1890, William Kemmler was the first person in the U.S. to be executed by electric chair. The Green Mile is very agonizing on all of the actors. John Coffey has to walk the green mile on his way to be executed. The guards walk up and down the mile knowing that they have to execute John.