+-----------------+ THE DEATH PENALTY +-----------------+ Since our nation's founding, the government -- colonial, federal and state -- has punished murder and, until recent years, rape with the ultimate sanction: death. More than 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times, most of them in the early 20th Century. By the 1930s, as many as 150 people were executed each year. However, public outrage and legal challenges caused the practice to wane. By 1967, capital punishment had virtually …showed first 75 words of 1979 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1979 total…is a barbaric remnant of uncivilized society. It is immoral in principle, and unfair and discriminatory in practice. It assures the execution of some innocent people. As a remedy for crime, it has no purpose and no effect. Capital punishment ought to be abolished _now_. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Capital punishment does not deter crime. | | Capital punishment is discriminatory and arbitrary. | | Capital punishment assures the execution of innocent people. | | Capital punishment has no place in civilized society. | +---------------------------------------------------------------+