The Death Penalty is on the Way Out in the United States,

with more states banning its practice and others considering following suit. I don't doubt the death penalty will be done away with in the United States, perhaps in my own lifetime.

Thanks to DNA and other advances in forensics, more innocent people are being exonerated, even including those who were wrongfully executed. Of course, as long as there are people who are prone to corruption, innocent people will still be sentenced to prison. Forensics aren't full-proof, and they can be destroyed by corrupt officials.

The death penalty, as noted in this piece, has been debated in this country for well over a century:

.Death penalty fervor was stoked by an explosion of sensational mass media.

Today’s TV may be the home of never-ending true-crime programming, but in the 19th century print media was the place to turn for the latest bizarre, sensational and gory true-crime stories. Beginning in the 1840s, America saw an explosion of magazines, newspaper stories, books, and pamphlets depicting the most gruesome crimes of the day. A titillated public gobbled up these sensational media offerings, which sparked outrage, fascination and fear. Could anyone be safe among the psychotic murderers who seemed to lurk everywhere?

Against this backdrop of mass-mediated fear, capital punishment came to be seen as a viable means of curtailing what was starting to look like a descent into depravity and wanton violence. Hysterical cries for executions were issued from pandering politicians to Bible-thumping preachers to anti-immigrant zealots eager to blame foreigners for crimes real and imagined. Early examples of this highly profitable print media included The American Blood Register; The Annals of Murder, or Daring Outrages, Trials, Confessions, etc; and The Lives of the Felons. From there it’s a straight line to Discovery ID, Nancy Grace, and other modern-day purveyors of true crime hysteria.