This five-page undergraduate paper argues against the death penalty, examines how it fails to deter crime, and condemns it on moral grounds. The author argues that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, violates the United States Constitution, and is a relic of the earliest days of penology, when other barbaric practices such as slavery, branding, and other corporal punishments were commonplace punishments for crimes. Just as those other uncivilized practices have been outlawed, the author argues that the death penalty should be outlawed as well. It simply has no place in a civilized society.