Is The Death Penalty Cruel And Unusual?

Capital punishment has been a controversial issue that still exists in America today. Capital punishment is a law passed by the government to punish any individual that has been convicted of committed a heinous crime. The death penalty has been a method used throughout history as punishment for criminals. The punishment also known as the death penalty is a scheduled execution, which would be done with lethal injection. The reason why this punishment is chosen is because when crimes are committed that shock the conscience, the immediate emotional reaction is to retaliate with severe punishment (Schnurbush 2016). The death penalty is debated when it is brought up, opinions vary from one group of people to another, one side says the execution is murder, and the other saying that it is justice being done. Each side presents valid arguments to why people should be for it or against it; people’s opinions are formed by personal beliefs.

Before jumping right into the topic, it is important to clarify a few key concepts and words that are often used when discussing capital punishment. Capital punishment refers to the concept of ending a suspected criminals life, and the methods that are typically used are: lethal injection, gas chamber, and the electric chair. The two most commonly used are lethal injection and the gas chamber. Neither act is considered better or worse, because ultimately they end with the same result. However, the alternative to these types of punishment is long-term imprisonment. Many anti-death penalty advocates argue that long-term imprisonment is by far the best course of action, because it allows for the possibility that if a mistake was made in the conviction of the suspect, they would be able to correct it without ending the life of an innocent person.

The death penalty is the punishment of execution, administered to someone legally convicted of a capital crime (law.cornell.edu, 2015). The first Congress of the United States authorized the federal death penalty on June 25, 1790 (deathpenalty.org, 2011). The death penalty can also be referred to as capital punishment, however capital punishment also includes a sentence to life in prison, as opposed to strictly executions. A convict can be sentenced to death by various methods including lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, firing squad, and hanging. After the death penalty was established, many debates have arisen arguing that these methods violate several of the United States’ Amendments. Select cases have been accused of violating the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. It is important to note that the judiciary goes through a series of processes prior to deciding a sentence for a capital crime. Many factors influencing the verdict include proportional analysis, individualized sentencing, method of execution, and classes of people not eligible of the death penalty. This paper will discuss brief descriptions of the methods used for executions, economical issues, the Supreme Court’s opinion regarding the death penalty, as well as important factors that make up the proportional analysis, individual sentencing process, method used, and determining classes of people who are not eligible for the death penalty.

In the United States Constitution, the 8th Amendment prohibits the use and practices of cruel and unusual punishment. What exactly is considered to be cruel and unusual punishment? This question is a hot topic among America's many different current controversies. Many people are saying that the use of capital punishment (to be sentenced to death as a penalty in the eyes of the law [a capital crime]. An execution [capital punishment]) is a direct violation of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (Capital Punishment). They say there should be another way to deal with these criminals other than having them executed. The purpose of this paper is to give a brief history of the death penalty

     Secondly, I believe the execution methods the death penalty utilizes make it cruel. In the US, there are five methods of execution currently in use. These methods are: electrocution, lethal injection, the gas chamber, the firing squad (used only in Utah), and hanging (Bailey). Problems with capital punishment methods stem as far back as the ritual itself. The eighth amendment, which is supposed to protect its citizens from torturous treatment and punishment at the hand of law enforcers, lets the enforcers inflict these methods which are cruel, slow and painful upon the person being executed.

That question is a debate that has been occuring for years. The supreme court has previously ruled that the dealth penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment there for it is not violating the eighth amendment in any way. Despite how the supreme court has ruled the death penalty, there is still many arguments till this day on whether or not it should fall under cruel and unusual punishment. In 1972, the case Furman V. Georgia was brought in front of the supreme court to rule whether or not they believed the dealth penality was cruel and unusual. This case almost ruled out the death penalty, but that didn't last very long. In 1976, the case Gregg V. Georgia came in front of the Supreme Court and the earlier decision was changed because a majority vote believed that the dealth penalty was not cruel and unusual. Eventually four principals were established to decided whether or not punishment was cruel and unusual. The four questions were, is it degrading to human dignity? Is it arbitary? Is it rejected throughout society? Is it unnecessary? Which many states ended up believing that the death penalty were along the lines of those four principals. Clayton Lockett might be a tragic example of the death penalty going bad. He was getting injected, but the injection didn't kill him up until an hour after it was injected. He had to sit there and suffer and many would of

The death penalty till this day remains to be a very controversial topic. Some people may argue that it should be considered a form of cruel and unusual punishment; others may rebuttal in saying that the death penalty is capital punishment. When visiting the idea of placing someone to death one must bear in mind the possibility of condemning an innocent person through such torture, the brutalizing effect on society it may leave, and the serious psychological trauma that a defendants family and friends may face. Is this really what the justice system is willing to place on the line in order to gain a form of so called justice. I mean reasonably speaking what will anyone gain from such an action. It definitely will not bring the harm to be undone. As stated in the encyclopedia under the theory of judicial torture “ the use of torture was confined to capital crimes, for which the death penalty or mutilation could apply” (PIHLAJAM, 2004). Looking at how the death penalty is conducted people should not be treated like animals, given a due time to be put down. No human being deserves such treatment whether or not his or her offense was so horrific and traumatic. Is that not the lesson being taught to society when the criminal is captured? Yet, the law as a jury of peers, men just like the accused, may cast the same sin upon him. Why should this action be considered in any way to be fair or believed to be capital punishment?

The 8th amendment of the United States Constitution states that “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” Specifically, the idea of cruel and unusual punishment has been a topic of dispute since its inception. Although the United States practiced execution as a punishment beforehand, “the Supreme Court did not address the death penalty issue until 1972.” It is often debated how we are to define cruel and unusual because of the vague nature of the terms. Because it is thought that the terms were kept vague in order to keep up with new forms of cruel and unusual punishment that would come into being after the constitution was written, the standards for determining what is cruel and unusual has been set by “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society” meaning that it changes depending on what our society deems decent or indecent at the time. The problem is that our society has always been split on this issue. Whether it involves the death penalty or the quality of prisoner confinement, some hold the opinion that these people deserve to be treated as less than human because of the crimes they have committed. Others vehemently disagree saying that everyone, no matter what they’ve done, deserves to be treated as humanely as possible. Those of this opinion are generally opposed to the death penalty. For future interpretation of this facet of our constitution, the cruel and

“And despite scientific efforts to implement capital punishment in a "humane" fashion, time and again executions have resulted in degrading spectacles, including the botched lethal injection in April 2014 that took more than 40 minutes to kill Oklahoma inmate Clayton Derrell Lockett and prompted Glossip v. Gross” (Heyns and Mendez). Capital punishment is an inhumane and outdated way for punishing criminals. The use of capital punishment is hundreds of years old in America. It is used as a punishment for criminals who have committed a violent crime in which they physically harm others. The point of the death penalty is to show that these kinds of crimes are not tolerated, and to deter criminals from committing these kinds of crimes. Unfortunately

The Death Penalty started in the eighteenth Century B.C. when it was established into the Code of King Hammurabi in Babylon, which codified the the Death Penalty for 25 different crimes.The Eighth Amendment states that the Death Penalty is considered a “cruel and unusual punishment,” which means that the Death Penalty is unfair to the persons getting the Penalty, but is also unconstitutional because it’s a punishment that ends the lives of people. So really you are killing the person that killed another or more, and you are just adding to the death toll. I oppose the Death Penalty because it could put innocent lives to death and costs way too much the country could afford to use.

To understand the topic of my paper we have to understand what cruel and unusual punishment means. Dictionary.com states that it is “punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Cruel and unusual punishment includes torture, deliberately degrading punishment, or punishment that is too severe for the crime committed. This concept helps guarantee due process even to convicted criminals. Many people have argued that capital punishment should be considered cruel and unusual punishment” (Dictionary.com 2017).

The death penalty has been around for centuries. It dates back to when Hammurabi had his laws codified; it was “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Capital punishment in America started when spies were caught, put on trial and hung. In the past and still today people argue that, the death penalty is cruel, unusual punishment and should be illegal. Yet many people argue that it is in fact justifiable and it is not cruel and unusual. Capital punishment is not cruel and unusual; the death penalty is fair and there is evidence that the death penalty deters crime. 
A big part of abolitionist’s argument is that the death penalty is not humane. They pull in Amendment 8, “…nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” What the victim went though was indeed “cruel and unusual punishments’.” The murderers’ death is not cruel. The people will demand justice for what he or she has done (Bidinotto 19). Hanging and the electric chair are topics more reasonable to argue, but now because of lethal injection capital punishment has become more humane. The death penalty is not barbaric, the pain and agony that the victim went through is barbaric. Abolitionists were very upset in 1996 when rapist and murderer John Albert Taylor was executed by firing squad; they said his death was barbaric (Feder 32). Charla King, the poor 11-year-old girl he raped and strangled with a telephone cord, her death was barbaric! It makes no sense to think that John

The Death Penalty has a powerful meaning to it; it’s not just a punishment for those criminals who commit a horrific crime. The Death Penalty offers the execution, gas chamber, lethal injection, hanging, and firing squad. The capital punishment is a topic that can cause arguments because some say it helps and some say it cannot help in anyway. The death penalty has saved lives after an execution, but it has caused many issues for families.

Others say that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment. However in most states, the person convicted has a choice between the electric chair or lethal injection. When a person is

Moreover, it is argued that capital punishment may violate Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishments. It is cruel because it is a relic of the earliest days of penology, when slavery, branding, and other corporal punishments were commonplace. Like those barbaric practices, it can be argued executions have no place in a civilized society. It is unusual because only the United States of all the western industrialized nations engages in this punishment. It is also unusual because only a random sampling of convicted murderers in the United States receive a sentence of death.