In this article I will discuss how the death penalty is against our human rights. Capital punishment is when a person is executed for a capital crime or capital offense. The death penalty has been around long enough for us to realize that something needs to change. In 1772 BC, the Code of Hammurabi was established. This is where we get the statement “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Later, in 621 BC, Draco's law code for Athens would sentence any delinquent to death (Melusky 175). The severity of the crime did not matter. Fortunately, we have come a long way since that time. But what I'm about to argue is have we come far enough? More recently, from 1930 to 1973, 3,859 people were executed under civil jurisdiction according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Since 2000, executions have occurred in a variety of ways around the world: beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, shooting, and stoning (Clapham153). The US government is always ready to think about going to another country to solve its problems. For example, recently there has been discussion about whether or not to send troops to Syria to solve their problems. I think we, the United States, would like to stop the continued beheading and stoning of people. However, that would simply be hypocritical, because what we are doing to our criminals isn't much better. Since 2000 we have come up with another way to execute people: lethal injection. Many people believe that this is painless, but in reality they are wrong. Dr. Edward Brunner of Northwestern University Medical School disagrees with this “painless” injection. He says people might appear completely comfortable and lying down, when in reality their sleep medication c...... middle of paper... in a shootout. His fingerprints were never found on the weapon or the car. A professor at the University of Michigan Law School declared him innocent in 2005. As you can see, the flaws in our system have killed innocent men just like Larry Griffin. The death penalty has done no good for this country. Taking someone's life doesn't bring back the other life they took. Almost all religions believe in forgiveness. This type of punishment shows no sign of forgiveness. Capital punishment can be painful, expensive and take the lives of innocent people. It is also against religion. The Constitution states that we can practice any type of religion. Most religions are not practiced fully if we allow this to happen in our country. With all the negative effects that come with capital punishment, the death penalty should be illegal.