The death penalty is a form of capital punishment that is only sentenced to those who have committed a capital felony. Currently, only 38 out of 50 states are using the death penalty. The states that are not choosing to use the death penalty are Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Washington DC.

When the death penalty was first becoming popular during the mid twentieth century, there were quite a few different methods used for capital punishment. Some examples were the firing squad, gas chamber, and hanging. Another form of capital punishment that was used a lot was the electrocution. This is where they put a wet cloth on your head and then strap your body to a machine that sends electric waves all through out your body. This method is not used much anymore by any of the states that allow the death penalty.

Now the lethal injection has become the most popular choice for the death penalty among most of the 38 states. It seems that people seem to think that this method seems to be more humane than any of the other forms of punishments.

Lethal injection is where they strap you down to a chair and inject you with a mixture of chemicals at a very potent level that will kill you, for the most part, painlessly. For you to receive the death penalty, you must be convicted of a capital felony. A capital felony has a few requirements such as you must have killed a police officer, you must have killed a child under 6, or you must have killed more than one adult at one time. These are just a few of the many requirements that you could have to be convicted and sentenced to a capital punishment.

For more information on your criminal case, contact the Wright Firm at 866-353-4600.