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Jfk Death Penalty

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Capital Punishment “Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect,” stated John F. Kennedy at Berlin on June 26th, 1963. Kennedy is most certainly correct in this subject because no government is ever “perfect.” There is always room for improvement in government and sometimes there are instances in which a law needs to be changed or repealed. Almost everyday, it seems, that there are outrageous crimes being committed and the criminals are being jailed rightfully so. Sometimes, a judge would decide that that criminal should receive the death penalty or capital punishment. Capital punishment has evolved over centuries from the ancient method of “an eye for an eye”, to beheadings, lynchings, electric chairs, etc. While most of …show more content…

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

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