Lethal Injection Case Study

Compared to previous uses such as firing squad, gas chambers, electric chair, and hanging, lethal injection is what the average joe would think as “most official” leaving a small window of thought for the complications and ill proof of its efficiency. The HRW combined an assortment of evidence justifying the thought that lethal injection can indeed be a painful process. In the court case Hill v. McDonough, Hill, a convicted murderer after killing a police officer, challenged Florida’s procedure for lethal injections. This brought much needed light to the discounted topic. Hill’s lawyer claimed that the three drug “mixture” may cause "wanton and gratuitous pain" that would cause him pain, Hill would be unable to express during his scheduled execution (Citation). This three drug system that was the main argument for Hill's case, contains, sodium thiopental, to sedate the inmate and put him to

The State of Texas was the first to perform a lethal injection execution and it is ranked first in executions as far back as 1976. Approximately, there have been over two hundred and eighty death penalties and a hundred and sixteen executions from 1982. Lethal injection involves injecting one or a variety of drugs into the person for the main cause of immediate death to him or her ("Texas | Death Penalty Information Center"). Characteristically, three drugs have been used. Sodium thiopental is an anesthesia which causes sleep, injecting with pancuronium bromide for paralysis of the muscles and to cause respiratory failure and the potassium chloride stops the heart from pumping. An intravenous salty drip is started in the arm of the prisoner

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

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”

On April 29, 2014, Oklahoma execution Clayton Lockett using a three-drug lethal injection procedure. The procedure went poorly; Lockett awoke after the injection of the drugs that were supposed to render him unconscious and did not die until about 40 minutes later. Oklahoma suspended all subsequent executions until the incident could be be investigated and subsequently adopted a new protocol that place higher emphasis on making sure the injection was done properly. The new protocol is also allowed for four alternative drug combinations, one of which used midazolam as the initial drug, as the did the the protocol used in the Lockett execution.

Something needs to be said is that the dissent also stated that the use of midazolam is a violation of the eighth amendment which raises the question if this guy knows what he's even talking about. The eighth amendment states that the government can not impose excessive bails, fines, or cruel and unusual punishment which contradicts the purpose midazolam. Midazolam is to get the patient out cold so it is easier for the operation to be done as quick, efficient, and as painless as

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

Unfortunately and likely from the lack of medical experiences when performing executions, there have been several documented botched executions since the Gregg v. Georgia decision which re-constitutionalized the death penalty. There have been 47 total botched executions including 35 by lethal injection and 1 attempted execution by lethal injection. Although the Supreme Court in Baze v. Rees state that isolated mishaps alone do not violate the Eighth Amendment, it is hard to see how the botched executions do not violate the Eighth amendment of the individual in question. For example in several instances, the executioners were unable to find an adequate vein which often required constant probing and stabbing. As a testament to the lack of medical

In continuation, Lithwick compels readers with logical facts about Arkansas’s procedures to put eight men to death in less than two weeks. She wants readers to focus on not just the issue of the death penalty, but how the act is conducted. She then explains the given reasoning behind the executions being rushed. A quote from Arkansas’s governor, Asa Hutchinson, says, “The state needs to kill these prisoners before the end of April because one of the three drugs in the lethal injection ‘cocktail’ expires at that time…” (2). Lithwick mentions this quote to make readers aware of the reasoning behind the rushed deaths. Also, Lithwick mentions a past Supreme Court case that pertains to the lethal injection drugs and facts about other states’ poorly performed executions she found from Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She says, “She notes that since 1997, no state has attempted this many executions at this pace. She includes the testimony of prison workers

In October 2003, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals was called upon to decide whether the State could execute a forcibly medicated prisoner in order to meet the competence requirements for proceeding with an execution. The ruling allowed Arkansas officials to force Charles Laverne Singleton, a schizophrenic prisoner convicted of murder, to take drugs that would render him sane enough to be executed by lethal injection. In 1990 the Supreme Court made a decision that was of great consequence to this case. In Washington v. Harper, the court permitted prison authorities to order forcible administration of antipsychotic drugs on the condition that three requirements were met. The requirements being that the prisoner must have a serious mental illness,

There were both supporters and opponents of the Arkanas idea as they originally planned to execute eight individuals living on death row. They planned do it within a span of eleven days. While the number would be unlike any other in modern American history, one of the drugs used in the lethal execution expires at the end of April. The drug is question is the sedative midazolam.

Hector Alvarez I disagree with your opinion about District Judge, Henry Wingate making the right decision to postpone the executions of the two death row inmates. Fact is that most inmates will come up with any excuse to not deal with the consequences that they have brought upon themselves. The lawyers argument is built on assumptions that the lethal injection is not potent enough because the compounds were not released to the public. “Chemical torture” as referred by the death row inmates by the lethal injection is nothing compared to gruesome crimes they have committed during their lives with no intentions of rehabilitating during the time they were incarcerated. Should laws be reconsidered or postponed because inmates feel uncomfortable

Because Singleton needed to receive medication for his mental illness and the state had an interest in having sane prisoners, the fact that the drugs had the “side effect” of making him sane should not affect his fate ("Murderer can be forced to take medication to become sane enough to be executed," n.d.). I believe such a regulation need not require a judicial hearing to comport with due process so long as the nonjudicial mechanisms employed contain sufficient procedural safeguards to appropriately balance the prisoner’s significant liberty interest against the government’s safety interest. I therefore conclude that, since Mr. Singleton has been condemned to die as a result of his felonious act, was sane when so condemned, the state do have a legitimate interest in balancing Mr. Singleton’s rights to be sane when executed and the victims’ families and society’s rights to ensure justice is served. Medication makes him sane, his execution legal under the eight amendments and justice served to all

Money is an issue death penalty activists rarely account for. The differences in price fall on the taxpayers shoulders. Because of numerous appeals, the total money spent on each death penalty case is different. When examining the death penalty as a whole, however, it is important to identify that not all costs are monetary. In addition to losing tax payers’ money for appeals that almost always fail, the drug cocktails themselves do not consistently achieve desired result. Several death row inmates have gone as far as to sue the state for a violation of their 8th Amendment rights. Due to this controversy, states have had increasing trouble accessing barbiturates for their “drug cocktail.” Indiana is no different. The escalating difficulties in the process of obtaining these drugs from overseas harm our foreign relations -- especially with European allies. The arduous process of importing barbiturates only increases the price of executions and the chance of a “cruel and unusual” punishment occurring.

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