Capital Punishment: The Only Defense In an average year about 20,000 homicides occur in the United States. Fewer than 300 convicted murderers are sentenced to death. But because no more than thirty murderers have been executed in any recent year, most convicts sentenced to death are likely to die of old age. Nonetheless, the death penalty looms large in discussions. The death penalty is our harshest form of punishment. It's final. It ends the life of those punished, instead of letting them live through imprisonment. Capital punishment is not intended to cause physical pain like those who commit murders inflict on their victims, but be the only cor