Importing Barbiturates

The legitimacy of the use of capital punishment has been tarnished by its widespread misuse , which has clouded our judgment regarding the justifiability of the death penalty as a punitive measure. However, the problems with capital punishment, such as the “potential error, irreversibility, arbitrariness and racial skew" , are not a basis for its abolition, as the world of homicide suffer from these problems more acutely. To tackle this question, one must disregard the currently blemished universal status quo and purely assess the advantages and disadvantages of the death penalty as a punitive measure. Through unprejudiced examination of the death penalty and its consequential impacts, it is evident that it is a punishment that effectively serves its retributive, denunciatory, deterrent, and incapacitative goals.

In other words, Billy White would have been classified as mentally retarded or intellectually disabled. In 2002 Atkins v. Virginia ruled that executing mentally retarded individuals violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Unfortunately, during the time White was executed there was nothing in place to protect the intellectually disabled.

The moral and ethical debate on the sentencing and enforcement of capital punishment has long baffled the citizens and governing powers of the United States. Throughout time, the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, and the vast majority beliefs of Americans, have been in a constant state of perplexity. Before the 1960s, the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution were interpreted as permitting the death penalty. However, in the early 1960s, it was suggested that the death penalty was a "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Many argue that capital punishment is an absolute necessity, in order to deter crime, and to ‘make things right’ following a heinous crime of murder. Despite the belief that capital punishment may seem to be the only tangible, permanent solution to ending future capital offenses, the United States should remove this cruel and unnecessary form of punishment from our current judicial systems.

One argument for ending the death penalty for the mentally ill is that it violates the offender’s 8th amendment constitutional rights of cruel or unusual punishment, since the person perpetrating the crime often is incompetent when committing the crime. “Mental Health America estimates that 5-10% of all death row inmates suffer from a severe mental illness.” (ncadp.org). The Florida murder case against serial murderer, Aileen Wuornos, demonstrates the true injustice of executing a mentally diagnosed individual. Wuornos shot and killed seven men along Florida highways between 1989 and 1990… she claimed that all her victims had either raped her or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute and that

In his memoir Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson recounts the stories of several clients whose mental illness was ignored during their trial. Some had intellectual disabilities, others were dealing with the aftermath of severe trauma, but each one was changed in some way. Whether their reasoning had been altered or they simply did not understand what was happening, any crime they committed was closely tied to their mental state. Logically, a major detail like the defendant’s thought process and motivation behind the crime would have been discussed, but this was not the case. Any evidence of their illness was forgotten about or outright ignored by both the prosecution and the defense. When considering each crime with their mental illness in mind, sentencing the defendant to death row is needlessly cruel. Their avoidance of the topic shows a complete failure to understand how important it can be to an individual’s decision-making abilities.

The prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment largely concerns itself with disproportionate and arbitrary punishments imposed by the government. “The Court has repeatedly emphasized the Eighth Amendment’s expansive and vital character and its capacity for evolutionary growth.” (Kanovitz, 2010) Cruelty is interpreted as actions that oppose current standards of decency. As public opinion grows and changes these standards are apt to change. The vague wording of the Eighth Amendment allows room for the opinion of what punishments are acceptable to adapt to modern times.

There are laws and decisions of United States government and higher orders that present controversy to the people of America. In the state of Texas the application of the death penalty is difficult to interpret, especially for the mentally ill, because there is no written law or bill that explains the execution implication in complete detail. The death penalty is a capital punishment of death for those who have committed such high crime. This penalty goes for everyone who does such act no matter who you are, how rich how poor, or where you stand in society. For the longest time, even with the mindset and understanding that those who commit crime to a certain level can receive the execution punishment, the concern and debate whether the mentally

June 20, 2002 - The Supreme Court rules 6-3 in Atkins v. Virginia that executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional.

The most valued documents in modern American society tend also to be the most heavily debated. For instance, interpretations of the United States Constitution tend to be rooted in one of two firmly entrenched beliefs;while the first camp believes it to be set in stone, the second his convinced that the United States Constitution is by nature a perpetually evolving document, meant to reflect the desires and needs of the people. Even amongst those in the same camp, disagreements abound; those believing that the Constitution is set in stone are divided on issues such as the eighth amendment’s prohibition of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. It is difficult to reach a consensus on what, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. For example, the concept of waterboarding is championed by many as a ‘humane’ form of torture which causes no physical harm. However, it was deemed a cruel and unusual punishment due to the sensations of drowning and symptoms of mental illness which it produced in its victims. It can therefore be inferred that physical injury is not the only factor to be considered in whether or not a practice is to be deemed inhumane; factors such as mental wellbeing and fitness of punishment must also be considered. This leads one to ponder how the concept of solitary confinement could possibly even be considered when it so clearly violates the protections which the eighth amendment provides.

Four years prior to this case, the Supreme Court ruled that “the Constitution bars states from executing prisoners who are insane.” Then a few moments later after an inmate submitted an appeal on death row, The Supreme Court agreed “to decide the further question of whether a state can, in effect, make a prisoner eligible for execution by administering anti-psychotic medication against his will.” In the Perry v Louisiana case, Keith B. Nordyre argues for Perry’s rights, whether or not they

As the famous American politician Martin O’Malley once said, “The death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent, and the appeals process is expensive and cruel to the surviving family members.” This quote explains that the death penalty is ineffective and arises even more complications for the family of the accused. In addition, the death penalty is a consequence that an accused pays for their crime. Moreover, the Eighth Amendment is trespassed because the death penalty is considered “cruel and unusual punishment.” Also, a former national basketball player and now a politician, Kevin Johnson said that in some states, they use three drug methods, including the sedative midazolam; a drug used to make people feel relaxed and/or sleepy during surgery. Altogether, the

The death penalty need it to also recognize every individual because in certain aspects it could have been seen as cruel and unusual. The question presented to the court was “is the execution of a mentally retarded persons cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the eighth amendment?”. In an earlier case back in 1989 Penry v. Lynaugh case, the supreme court decided that executing the mentally retarded was allowed and constitutional. In the trial of Atkins v. Virginia, the U.S. supreme court ruled 6-3 that executing a mentally retarded person was unconstitutional. On balance of the supreme court case of Atkins v. Virginia illustrates that the court is a dynamically constrained when doctrinal, institutional, and cultural constraints

Legal Affairs Reporter, Cristian Farias, in his article, “The Supreme Court Let a Man Die. He Was Executed With The Wrong Drug.”, and columnist, Manny Fernandez, in his column, “Delays as Death-Penalty Sates Scramble for Execution Drugs” describes the conflicting issues involving the use of certain drugs for the death-penalty. Farias’ purpose is to demonstrate the disastrous decisions the Supreme Court and Oklahoma made. However, Fernandez’s purpose is to inform the readers about how the execution drugs is affecting states all over the country. Both authors were informative and gave intriguing facts, but Farias connected with the audience more and Fernandez created a serious tone to convey to the readers how it is impacting people’s lives.

“On Jan 7, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments challenging the lethal three-Drug cocktail used in most U.S executions. In a perfect world, perhaps, the government wouldn’t wait 30 years to determine whether an execution method makes sense” Von Drehle, D (2008). So many Americans are being sentenced to death, and we stand back and wonder how this can be happening. It happens because we have criminals and so we will continue to have crime, and instead of trying to figure out the who, what, where and why we would rather put them to death. The reasons to abolish the death penalty go on and on, what about the

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