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The death penalty is the execution of a criminal who was sentenced to death. It is a term that is used interchangeably with capital punishment. There are many arguments for and against the death penalty.

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The practice of the death penalty goes far back. The earliest origins can be traced to Babylon in the Code of Hammurabi which quotes "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life". The code tried to apply the death penalty fairly as a form of retribution against the wrongful only. Capital punishment was also used in Ancient Greece for other crimes such as murder, treason, arson and rape.

In England in the 17th and 18th centuries, the death penalty had a wide scope of offenses that it could be applied for, but most of the time it wasn't. Banishment was usually an alternative that was used to capital punishment. Many of those sentenced to death could claim benefit of clergy in which they prove that they were related to the clergy and were acquitted.

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In terms of murder, those who support capital punishment believe that the penalty is a form of retribution for taking another person's life. On the other hand, opponents argue that by the death penalty legalizes murder and is morally counterproductive. As a society, we should move towards trying to cancel out evil and the death penalty is simply cheapening the value of life. They argue that when it is used for lesser crimes than murder, capital punishment is greatly disproportionate to the crime committed. Many abolitionists argue that condemning someone to death is inhuman and degrading. Instead of wasting lives, the resources that are devoted to keeping an inmate on death row should be reinvested in rehabilitating prisoners.

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The supporters of capital punishment believe that the harshness of the death penalty has a deterring effect on future homicide related crime, thus is should be kept. However, there has been inconclusive evidence to support this claim. Instead, evidence shows that the death penalty does not have anymore of a deterring effect on crime than life sentences do.

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Opponents of the death penalty point out that the penalty can't be applied fairly to those of ethnic and religious minorities. Many times, these groups do not have the proper legal assistance to fight in court. Additionally, most juries are predominantly white which causes the conviction of black and other nonwhite defendants in disproportionate numbers. This can be backed up by statistics where black inmates made up 41% of death row inmates. This may seem like the minority compared to the 51% of white death row inmates, but looking at it from a big picture view, blacks only make up 13% of the adult population compared to the 77% for white people. Another study showed that black defendants are 4 times more likely to be sentenced to death than non-black defendants.

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Ever since the later part of the 18th century, there has been a movement to limit capital punishment. In America, Pennsylvania was the first state to restrict the death penalty to only first degree murder. Venezuela was the first country to abolish it completely, with many others following. International bodies such as the United Nations also called to limit the range of the death penalty, campaigning to restrict the number of offenses for which it could imposed with the overall movement towards abolishing it. The EU and the Council of Europe also established that countries under their membership must move towards abolishment causing many European countries to get rid of it. One of the reasons that the abolition movement enjoyed so much success was because the death penalty was turned into a international human rights issue. NGOs, such as Amnesty International, started to also campaign on behalf of it's abolishment, further fueling the movement.

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Though there is an abolitionist movement, there are many countries that have retained capital punishment including many global powers. In America, the federal government has retained the death penalty. However, after new DNA testing technology emerged exonerating many inmates, many states started to abolish capital punishment. At the moment, only 6 states practice it. Some other countries have expanded the scope of the death penalty, such as Singapore, Iran, and Malayasia, and sentences people to death over crimes such as drug trafficking. China, India, and Japan also use capital punishment, but overall the amount of deaths has decreased.

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Many death row inmates are kept in solitary confinement, resulting in a decline in their mental health. There have been legal experts which have compared this isolation to torture. The isolation on death row exacerbates previous mental illness that inmates suffer from. In a study done on the emotions of death row prisoners, it was anger and fear that were the most dominant. Most death row criminals spend a significant part of their time in introspection due to the awareness of impending death. Many inmates start to mourn or grieve for their own loss and develop religious convictions.

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Human error is bound to occur leading many people to be wrongfully convicted and killed for the death penalty. The appeals process for the death penalty is unlikely to catch all mistakes made. There have been attempted reforms to stop wrongful conditions, but it has ended up increasing the time and costs of the trials. There have been many cases where DNA evidence has been used to exonerate death row inmates, but these cases only represent a small fraction of the total number of death row exonerations. In reality, DNA evidence is rarely available and is used in less than 10% of crimes. Even those who have been exonerated due to new evidence had spent a significant time in jail for false convictions, essentially wasting most of their life. Only a few of these exonerees were adequately compensated.

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Death row cases cost a lot more money than non-death penalty cases. This is a consistent observation throughout many different states:

Kansas: Median Cost of Death Penalty all the way to execution - $1.26 million, Median Cost of Non-Death Penalty cases all the way to end of imprisonment - $740,000

Tennessee: Capital punishment trials costs an average of 48% more than trials that seek life imprisonment

Maryland: Death penalty costs 3 times more than non-death penalty cases

California: Without the death penalty, the prison system would only cost $11.5 million a year compared to the current system of $137 million a year

There are multiple reasons for the difference in costs in death penalty and non-death penalty cases. One reason is because the death sentence has two phases which is conviction and sentencing, extending the time of trial. There is also extra investigation needed in capital punishment cases. Lastly, if the death penalty does not come to fruition, there is money required for retrial which often results in a life sentence which also comes with more costs.

By spending this much time on the death penalty, it is diverting resources on other parts of the justice system such as rehabilitation, crime prevention, and drug treatment.

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Historically, many societies used cruel forms of capital punishment. In Rome, many died in gladiatorial combat, crucifixion, or drowning. In China, the accused could be sawed in half, burned or boiled alive. Many of these executions were public.

In today's society, the lethal injection is the most widely used form of capital punishment. Yet, other forms of execution that still are used are electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, and ring squad.

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Many religions also sanctioned the usage of the death penalty including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism and Christianity, the death penalty is condoned under the Book of Genesis extending the crimes that it is applied for such as adultery and blasphemy. In Islam, murder is actually not one of the crimes that results in the death penalty. Instead, it is other crimes such as robbery, adultery and apostasy that led to death.

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Marcellus Williams was sentenced in 2001 to death for the murder of Felicia Gayle. Though there was serious doubt surrounding his involvement, he was executed in 2024 by lethal injection.

The legal process for Williams was long and complex. He was first arrested on the basis of two informants claiming that he was the murderer. However, both these testimonies were shaky and changing with both the informants benefitting from the testimony. There was no physical evidence connecting Williams to the crime, and DNA testing of the murder weapon revealed a male DNA profile that did not match Williams. With this evidence, Williams appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court yet the new evidence was dismissed and Williams was to be executed in August 2017.

However, on the day of his execution, Governor Greitens stopped the execution and required the new evidence to be reviewed. However, the new Governor, Mike Parsons, withdrew this order and Williams was set to be executed in September 2024.

In August of 2024, Williams agreed to enter an Alford Plea in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. Even though the Judge accepted the plea, the attorney general of Missouri requested that the state supreme court block the deal which they did.

More DNA evidence emerged that the prosecuting team mishandled the murder weapon. The prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell conceded that there were constitutional errors including contaminating the murder weapon, destroying fingerprints, and excluding black jurors due to their race. Yet, the Judge continued on with the execution.

In total, Williams spent 24 years on death row. In this time, he became a master of poetry writing many poems for other inmates on death row.