15 min writing

Since the beginning of time the death penalty has been sed as a punishment for those who commit heinous crimes towards others in humanity. It has only been since colonial times that records were kept of this. Is the death penalty to cruel? This is something that the news media asks every time that it is enforced. it also creates a ver heated topic for political debates all around the country and the world. The death penalty has been used as a punishment all throughout history but it wasnt until colonial times that records of it were kept. Since tis time there have been 13,000 legal executions in the United States. In the early 19th century, the number of executions per year grew to as many as 150 in 1930, before dropping to nearly zero in 1967 because of insufficient funds. The death penalty was completely abolished from the American Constitution in 1972, and stayed this way until it was reinstated in 1976. Once it was reinstated, the constitution gave states the choice of using the death penalty for punishment. Today there are twelxe states that do not recognize or utilize the the death penalty as a form of punshment. These states include: Alaska, District of Columbia,Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin. There are also seven more jurisdictions that have that the death penalty, but have not performed one since it was reinstated in 1976.