Death Penalty

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row before being executed.

The Supreme Court added the USA Patriot Act which expanded the crimes punishable by death penalty. Crimes that were added because of this act were transporting materials used in a terrorist attack, helping to plot an attack on mass transit, and participating in an attack on maritime vessels. But not everyone can be sentenced to the death penalty, two recent Supreme Court decisions have limited juries' ability to sentence prisoners to death. As a result of the case Atkins V. Virginia in 2002 the court found that executing a mentally retarded violated the 8[th] amendment. Also in Roper V. Simmons the court ruled that the death penalty could not be imposed for crimes committed before a defendant turned 18 years old. Today poles show that only 65% of Americans believe murders should be sentenced to the death penalty which is a sufficient drop from 1990s where 80% of Americans were for the death penalty. (Issues & Controversies On File, 2009)

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