S e c o n d e d I t I o n 1 Reading for the Real World 1

rape
were routinely 
executed, either by hanging or by a firing squad. Convicted 
burglars
, thieves, 
and even 
counterfeiters
often received the death penalty. This was thought to 
be a 
deterrent
to other criminals.
People began to feel that criminals were not evil. Instead, they were victims of 
poverty, poor education, and lack of opportunity. Society should help criminals, 
rather than kill them, they thought. Another reason for the change in thinking was 
economic. Prisons were very expensive. Early American states could not afford to 
keep many people in prison. Rather than keep them in prison, convicted criminals 
were executed. But as society became richer during the Industrial Revolution, 
prisons became more affordable for society. Because of this and other reasons, 
keeping criminals in prison rather than executing them became a viable option. 
By the mid-1800s, many states banned the death penalty except in the case of 
convicted murderers. But those states were mostly the northern states. The 
southern states kept the death penalty for many crimes. That trend continues in 
modern America. Even today, most 
executions happen in the southern states. 
The southern states are considered more 
conservative
than northern states. In the 
southern states today, death by injection is 
the standard form of execution. It is 
considered the most humane form of the 
death penalty.
5
rape --- to use violence to force someone to have sex
6
burglar --- a person who enters a place to steal things
7
counterfeiter --- a person who makes fake money
8
deterrent --- something frightening or unpleasant that stops some 
bad action
23
conservative --- not wanting change; not liberal
Track 21
 

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In the last few years in America, the debate over the death penalty 
has grown more widespread. A recent argument against the death 
penalty is that some of the people who are found guilty and 
sentenced to die are not actually guilty. New methods of verifying 
evidence, such as DNA testing, have helped free many 
death-row
inmates. Because in many cases, criminals cannot be proven 100 
percent guilty, it is not right to sentence them to death, 
opponents say. There is a chance that they may be innocent. In 
fact, the governor of Illinois recently 
halted
all executions in his 
state. In Illinois, some death-row inmates were shown later to be 
innocent of the crime for which they were imprisoned. After that, 
the governor was afraid that some people being executed were 
wrongly convicted.
Another argument against the death penalty is the high cost of executing a 
prisoner. Someone sentenced to die has the right to appeal the sentence several 
times. The state has to defend its case each time before a higher court. One study 
found that it costs more than $1,000,000 in legal costs for a prisoner to 
exhaust
all appeals against the death penalty. Despite the often-heated national 
debate, the majority of Americans are still in favor of the death penalty.
According to a recent study, approximately 65 percent of Americans still believe 
that the death penalty is appropriate for crimes such as