Why do they have to put the caps lock right above the shift key?

Question

it should be somewhere else. A lot of people have to look at what they are typing (instead of the screen) and don't realize they have hit the caps lock instead of the shift, and that is how they end up writing in all caps, and angering everybody, because they don't want to go back and re-type everything...

Answer 1

It goes back to the ancient days of the typewriter when the caps lock was a mechanical key above the shift key.  

Answer 2

Eugene is right. On the typewriter the caps-lock key actually had a mechnaism used to lock down the shift key.