The death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment strictly prohibited by the 8th Amendment. William J. Brennan, Jr., J.D., former Justice of the United States Supreme Court, stated: "Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality, and in its enormity, but it does not serve to no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment; the principle inherent in the clause prohibiting the senseless infliction of an excessive punishment when a less severe punishment can adequately achieve the same purposes invalidates the punishment." Gregg vs. Georgia [1976]. After committing a crime, all criminals will face some form of punishment after the deed. As the Honorable William J. Brennan stated above, if you can still do justice to the crimes committed, why would you go out of your way to take someone's life? This makes the death penalty seem spiteful and cruel. While criminals should be fully held accountable for their actions and are not worthy of being held in a prison cell, these arguments serve a purpose. It is against the ethics of America as a country that follows the Constitution to continue these executions and makes the United States look hypocritical and inhumane when it tries to be the model for the