Susan Smith intentionally drove her car into a lake with her two children strapped to the back seat, but the jury decided that capital punishment is too cruel for murdering her infant daughters. The word "capital" in "capital punishment" refers to a person's head. In the past, people were often executed by severing their head from their body. Today, in the U.S., most prisoners are murdered by lethal injection. Capital Punishment has been a …showed first 75 words of 1339 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1339 total…Harvard University Press, 1988. Greenhouse, Linda. "The Supreme Court: Capital Punishment; Justices Say Death Penalty is Up to Juries, Not Judges." New York Times . 25 June 2002: T1+. Professor MgGuire, James. Telephone Interview. Jan 2002. Novak, Viveca. "Putting the Death Penalty to Work." Time 22 April 2002: 67-68. Schonebaum, Steve. Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime? New York: Greenhaven Press, 1998. "Capital Punishment Statistics." U.S. Department of Justice 15 December 2002. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm. "Capital Punishment." Britannica. 18th edition. 1989.