The court treats all cases with extreme seriousness; however, different cases are handled differently. For example, murder cases require different pretrial procedures than a case such as a traffic violation. This article presents philosophers' views on punishment and how the county's District Court Division handles capital punishment. To begin with, punishment is an act that involves intentionally inflicting agony or misery on a person for a wrongdoing, with the aim of correcting them. Capital punishment involves the death penalty or life imprisonment for the person found guilty. In philosophers' efforts to justify punishment, they have proposed theories that explain the main purpose of punishment. The theories are utilitarianism and retributivism (Fieser, 2001). Utilitarianism is a theory that seeks to identify the consequences of administering punishment. He explains that punishment should serve to deter a potential offender from committing a crime. This could be done by establishing clear laws defining the penalties for a specific crime committed. The theory also proposes punishment as a means of rehabilitating the offender. For example, sentencing an offender to community service should be done with the goal of improving the offender's character (Fieser, 2001). On the other hand, retributivism is a theory that advocates proportionate punishment for any offender. The theory invokes the principle of retaliation, which states that a person who kills another must also be killed. The proponent of this theory, Immanuel Kant, seems to agree with the existence of capital punishment in some states. However, to rule out the chances of an innocent person being punished...... middle of paper ......ions. However, sometimes judges override jury recommendations and impose the death penalty rather than life imprisonment (Death Penalty, nd). In conclusion, statistics indicate that many inmates were executed in 2009 compared to 2008. In 2008, 37 inmates from nine states were executed. executed either by lethal injection or electrocution. The following year saw the execution of 52 inmates (Capital Punishment Statistics, 2008). Works Cited Capital Punishment Statistics, (2008). US Department of Justice. Retrieved from http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1757.htmlDeath penalty, (nd). Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved from http://www.spectacle.org/linkpgs/deathpenalty.htmlFieser, J. (2001). Death penalty. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retried from http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/punishme.htm#H5. HTML