Capital punishment is the most awful penalty that the state can employ. Although its use has declined worldwide inover the nextpast 50 years, it is still practised in a significant number of countries, including, China and the United States. It has strong opponents and supporters, leading to fierce debate about their effectivenessits ethics. The supporters of capital punishmentspunishment argue that it deters criminals from doing bigcommitting serious crimes such as murder, because they know that they risk death themselves. AlthoughHowever, critics argue that most murders isare committed without planning, and that researchesresearch shows that the murder rate is not higher in countries which haven’tthat don't have the death penalty. They also say that everyone should have the chance ofto reform, which may be achieved bythrough a long period of imprisonment, and that state execution is an inhumane act. You can see that this is a subject that createsevokes strong feelings, and clearly this controversy wasis likely to continue for many years.