Electric Chairs Argument Analysis

States are getting out of hand. The state of Oklahoma will start using nitrogen gas to execute death row, officials said, an unprecedented response to the inability of states nation wide to obtain lethal injection drugs. Oklahoma’s move is the latest in a series of dramatic efforts. Some officials have made to carrying out death sentences. Oklahoma isn't the only state who has decided to practice death penalty. Electrocution is in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Utah does firing squad. In 2009, New Mexico voted to abolish the death penalty. Colorado abolished the death penalty in 1897 but reinstated it in 1901. In 2009, the Colorado House of Representatives passed the death penalty abolished bill. A pro of having the power to use the death penalty is that it kills people for there bad crimes. A con of having the power to apply the death penalty is the person who made the crime just dies and doesn't have to think about what they did and how the families of the victims feel. States are losing the lethal injection drug because there's little supply of it. Personally I think individual states should not have the power because the criminal should think about what they have done. Also, states have too much power in the first place either all states should have them or don't have them at

In this article it states what all methods are used for the death penalty. In Eight states it allows electrocution (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia). Three states it allows the gas chamber (Arizona, Missouri, and Wyoming). Three other states allow hanging (Delaware, New Hampshire, and Washington). Two other states allow the firing squad (Oklahoma and Utah), though only Oklahoma is the one that uses it. Utah allowed that option before it was banned in 2004.

Some of the countries and states still have the electric chair, firing range, and even the hanging squad. One of the states that still had the electric chair was Nebraska. Nebraska, the only state with the electric chair as the primary method of execution, determined on February 8, 2008 that it was cruel and unusual punishment under the state's constitution, and the United States constitution. Prisoners are no longer electrocuted in Nebraska, and now the state has no method of execution. A survey of experts from the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and the Law and Society Association showed that the overwhelming majority did not believe that the death penalty is a proven deterrent to homicide. (Radelet & Akers, 1995)

The execution style of the electric chair was first used on convicted murderer William Francis Kemmler on August 6th, 1890. The use of electricity is a more modern style of execution. The idea of using electricity to end someone's life was invented to seek a more “humane” method rather than lynching people. Once Kemmler was executed in New York, other states at the time rapidly adopted this new style of execution. It was used up until 2008 by Nebraska until the Supreme Court ruled that the use of the electric chair was “unconstitutional.” For execution using the electric chair, the criminal is usually shaved and placed in a chair with belts that cross his/her chest, groin, legs, and arms. Then, a metal cap shaped like a skull, electrode is attached to the head and a sponge moistened with saline. However, the sponge cannot be too wet or the saline short-circuits the electric current, and cannot be too dry, because then it would have a high resistance. Next, an additional electrode is moistened with electro-creme (conductive jelly) and is then attached to the victim’s leg that was shaved to reduce the resistance of electricity. The prisoner is then blindfolded. A perfect example of how the electric chair works is depicted in The Green Mile. Although it does succeed in killing the criminal, the use of electricity is considered inhumane and the victim takes a while to die. While using the electric chair may not be the best way of executing a criminal, in case of a state or government not being able to obtain lethal injection, the electric chair could be brought back again for

Each county was responsible to carry out executions on their own until in 1923, when the state implemented a law saying executions should be done through electrocutions in Huntsville (Champagne). This violated the Eighth Amendment because the criminals felt the pain of being electrocuted. As a result, in 1977, the state required that lethal injection be the sole method of execution in Texas (Champagne). Although the lethal injection was to be painless and that it was created for the benefit of the criminal, it still violates The Eighth Amendment because it is inhumane. The crime done by the prison cannot be justified by taking the prisoner’s life. Capital punishment takes the like of a person, and what can be taken can never be taken back anymore. In 2011, the drug they used in the lethal injection had to be changed from sodium thiopental to pentobarbital because of the international attention and protestations it received in the United States (Champagne). The issues concerning pentobarbital as part of the three-drug cocktail in the lethal injection arose when officials did not want to say the source where they are getting their pentobarbital from (Dart). When Texas had to execute a man this April using new batches of pentobarbital, protestors claimed that because of the source’s lack of authenticity, it was possible that “an excessively painful execution”

The death penalty is the punishment of execution. The death penalty was authorized by 32 states, the Federal Government, and the U.S. Military. Throughout the years, the method of the death penalty has changed. Not only has the way it is performed been altered, but also the way our presidential candidates view the death penalty. For example, when George Bush was governor of Texas in the 1990s, he approved executions. He sent some to death who might have been innocent. Death sentences in Texas have dropped nearly 80% since 1999. In 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a form of execution. Lethal injection is the primary method used. On December 2, 1982, Charles Brooks became the first person executed by lethal injection in Texas. Besides the deadly injection, the electric chair nicknamed "Old Sparky," was also an execution method. Texas, along with Louisiana, Ohio, and Illinois used the electric chair. The electric chair was in use from 1924 until 1964. Old Sparky was said to have taken 361 prisoners life's (TexasTribune).

Having to execute prisoners in Texas is a critical issue in our criminal justice system. The executions are carried out on capital murderers. It all started back in the 1800’s when counties carryed out their own exectution method; prisoners were hung. Than, in the1920’s the state of Texas ordered that all executions were to be carried out to Walls Unit, Huntsville for “The Electric Chair.” Ever since 1982, Texas was the first U.S state to execute with the “Lethal Injection.” The executions in Texas are carried out in various ways, but the primary way of executing inmates now is by lethal injection.

You would think that would curb the killings, but it has not. The only time they were reviewed was to prevent public shaming. “Three hundred and sixty-one men were put to death by electrocution before Old Sparky was decommissioned, in 1977. The Legislature decided to retire the sturdy, high-backed, solid oak chair after a Dallas TV reporter named Tony Garrett filed a lawsuit along with the American Civil Liberties Union seeking permission to film executions and broadcast them to the public. When a federal judge in Dallas ruled in January 1977 that executions could indeed be televised, Texas lawmakers quickly moved to approve a new method that would be less offensive than electrocution”. (http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-witness/).

Charles Warner and 20 other death row inmates sued various state officials and argued that the use

The first execution was in 1982 with Charles Brooks, Jr. Death Penalty has become a very important issue in Texas. Many disagree on the harsh punishments others are given, especially those who are executed without any evidence and whom are not guilty. Cameron Todd Willingham was one of the innocent ones. He was wrongfully charged with arson and the murder of his three children.

Lethal injections have been around for many years with the same basic idea and procedure. Lethal injection uses three drugs, a fast acting barbiturate that sedates the inmate and the drug Tubocurarine that paralyzes the inmate, and finally potassium chloride is used to stop his heart. These methods have been a controversial issue for many reasons. People that supports lethal injection believes that it is more humane method of execution than any other because it cause little or no pain. It also argued that it is less expensive than detaining or placing someone in jail for life. As far as lethal injection been unconstitutional because the procedure causes unusual pain and suffering, some people believe that someone who has kill countless people deserve to physical

Inmates in Oklahoma State Penitentiary, located in McAlester, Oklahoma, sued state officials after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29, 2014 led to Lockett laying in agonizing pain for 40 minutes after receiving the lethal injection cocktail, waiting for his heart attack to kill him (Konrad, Web). Richard E. Glossip and the other death row inmates petition the Court, believing that the use of midazolam as the initial drug of execution violated the Eight Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment (S. Ct, p.1). The Supreme Court of the United States of America denied the motion in a 5-4 ruling, stating prisoners “failed to establish a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the

Since these modifications were made by the Supreme Court some states that wanted to restore the death penalty incorporated them in their new death penalty laws. The Supreme Court did not demand that each of the alterations appear in the new laws. So, some of the new laws include discrepancies on the procedural modifications found in the Gregg decision. The ten-year suspension of executions that had started with the Jackson and Witherspoon decisions concluded on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore was executed in Utah by firing squad. Gilmore did not contest the death sentence he was given. Following Gilmore’s execution, Oklahoma was the first state to use lethal injection as a manner of execution. Five years later Charles Brooks would be the

Justice Leader J. Shaw, Florida Supreme Court, wrote, “The electric chair with its attendant smoke and flames and blood and screams, it’s a death penalty plus. So why do some states still use the electric chair? Nebraska and Alabama only use the electric chair, while most states give the inmates a choice of methods. Most executions when completed the room smells like burning flesh and there are even an occasional smoke and blood. This method has been argued as inhumane because when the execution is taking place the brain is boiling at 135-145 degrees. How is that humane? Vetinary associations no longer use electricity to euthanize animals yet we do and shouldn’t humans be treated just as good if not better than animals? (Weinstein, Henry)Not to mention the generator of the electric chair is suppost to be the most obscene and horrific sound you’ve ever heard. As Jefferson says in A Lesson Before Dying, “I heard two jolts but I never looked up, I will never forget the sound of that generator as long as I live on this earth.”(Gaines, 254) These chairs have also taken many innocent lives so there is absolutely no reason why they should still be alive.

An Impassioned Debate: An overview of the death penalty in America depicts the facts about the eighth amendment. The eighth amendment is the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments (Masci 1). There are two significant cases that have inflamed the debate over the capital punishment, The Baze v. Reese case, and the Kennedy v. Louisiana case. The first case reveals the strong debate that the execution by lethal injection is inhuman and in violation of the eight amendment. The second case inflamed the