Capital punishment in America Capital punishment or death penalty as it is commonly defined is, among all penal practices, the most controversial. This is not surprising at all, considering the fact that it involves taking a human life. Since it is the most severe of all sentences, countless efforts have been made to abolish it, and these efforts have proven successful in most industrialized countries, except Japan and the United States of America. It is very important to know the problems related to capital punishment, because it occurs in the country in which we live and affects us even if we are not on death row. Given that capital punishment is applied in almost half of the world, it would be difficult to talk about all the circumstances and problems related to capital punishment in each country and, for this reason, the focus of this analysis will be the United States of America. It is difficult to describe the death penalty without discussing the methods used to carry out this punishment. In the past there have been various means of achieving this. For example, crucifixion, drowning, burning, impalement, hanging, and shooting have all been used as methods of inflicting a lawful death on an individual. However, most of these have been defined as inhumane and therefore eliminated in most countries. So, in an attempt to "civilize" a person's performance, new techniques were developed. For example, in France the guillotine was created as a quick and civilized means of inflicting death as an alternative to beheading criminals with a sword, which was sometimes too blunt and required the executioner to move several times before the job was completed . But today in the United States capital punishment is generally carried out by lethal gas, injection, or electrocution. Three states carry out execution by hanging and another three by firing squad. In the United States there is a distribution of authority. At the federal level, the death penalty is available for over forty crimes including premeditated murder, drug trafficking and treason. But the federal government allows individual states to define crimes and choose their own penalties for crimes committed. Twelve of these fifty states have completely abolished the death penalty. There are currently approximately 3,500 people on death row in the United States. California leads the list with 603 criminals awaiting death and it is possible that by the end of the year another man, Scott Peterson, could join these ranks.