The Death Penalty: For the Common Good Putting to death people judged to have committed certain extremely terrible crimes is a practice of ancient standing, but in the United States in the second half of the twentieth century, it has become a very controversial issue. Changing views on this difficult issue led the Supreme Court to abolish capital punishment in 1972 but later upheld it in 1977. Although capital punishment is what the people want, there are many voices raised against it. People all over the country debate this issue quite frequently. They question the deterrent effect, morality, executions of innocents, and many more. I hav