Capital punishment has been putting an end to the lives of criminals for centuries. People have debated whether the government should have the power to decide a person's life. On the one hand, people think that the government has no right to play God and believe that the death penalty is simply immoral. 48% of a half-sample survey said life imprisonment was a better punishment for murder, while 47% said capital punishment was a better punishment (Newport). However, capital punishment should be applied throughout the country to help deter crime, benefit the economy and ensure retaliation. The one thing people fear most is death. Nothing deters anyone, including criminals, more than their greatest fear. Most cases demonstrate that death is always more feared than life imprisonment (Haag). Furthermore, once the murderer is executed, the feeling of committing crimes will become non-existent. Evidence shows that most prisoners who were given the opportunity to start their lives over and be emancipated early from prison or who managed to escape, eventually started killing innocent people. Professor Paul Cassell conducted a study of one hundred and sixty-four Georgia murderers, and of those one hundred and sixty-four murderers, eight of them had committed consequential murders within the next seven years of their release ("Morally Defensible?"). Since 1935 the murder rate has been steadily decreasing. However, the situation escalated greatly after the Supreme Court began routinely invalidating the state death penalty starting in 1963. With the abolition of capital punishment, murders and murders quickly became strange… . half of the document......n?url=http://www.credoreference.com/entry/abchri/capital_punishment>."The death penalty: morally defensible?" Casey's Critical Thinking. Network. 04 May 2012. .Hennessy-Fiske, Molly. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, February 24, 2012. Web. May 4, 2012. “69% of Americans Support the Death Penalty.” Network. May 4, 2012. ."Top 10 Pros and Cons - Death Penalty - ProCon.org." Death Penalty ProCon.org. Network. 04 May 2012. .Tucker, William. “Capital punishment works.” Weekly standard. Net. .