Lethal Injection Is The Practice Of Killing A Person

While execution methods have changed throughout the years each means of elimination has proved to be some form of violence. Some examples include a firing squad in which the criminal was shot to death, electric chair in which the criminal is shocked to death, public hanging where the criminal’s neck is snapped or choked to death, and most commonly used now, lethal injection, which administers a three drug system supposedly similar to putting down an old dog. It has been thought that lethal injection would surpass the eighth amendment because many thought the drugs were unable to harm those who would be effected. However, in Oklahoma there was Layton Lockett’s botched execution, in which he woke up and suffered in immense pain until he finally died. This occurred because of multiple reasons, the first being the use of a new drug and the second, was that the drug had being administered by someone with no medical training. Shortly after this occurred there were 21 individuals who filed civil rights cases arguing that lethal injections were a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Unfortunately, because the execution was only seen as an accident, lethal injection was not considered cruel because it could not prove that the action caused serious illness or needless suffering. The death penalty is inconsistent and unreliable both physically and within processes. Executions

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.

Medical practitioners traditionally do not inject the criminal with the cocktail used in lethal injections. They are typically done by others outside the medical profession, which could potentially lead to botched

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

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

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”

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

After the barbiturate anesthetic sodium drug is administered, inmates are given pancuronium bromide (Hooper, 2006). This drug stops the inmates breathing and then stops the heart from beating, but because the inmate is paralyzed and cannot breathe, he or she would not be able to let anyone know the pain they may be going through (Hooper). Even with all these variables in place that can potentially cause great pain to the inmate receiving the lethal dosage, it is still considered the most humane way to carry out the death penalty among the states (Hooper). Hooper also states that the actual time of death of the inmate may not come until 30 to 45 minutes after the first shot was given to the inmate.

Lethal injection is the practice of killing a death row inmate by using a lethal dose of drugs, however, the many problems with lethal injection include it not resulting in an immediate death, the lack of available drugs, and complaints from inmates. In fact, executions using lethal injection have lasted over 20 minutes, with the inmate moaning, convulsing, and gasping for air. A federal judge in Mississippi blocked lethal injection executions after 2 death row prisoners claimed it to be "chemical torture." Also, lawyers of death row prisoners in Tennessee argued that lethal injection is unconstitutional because of the horrendous and painful deaths that results from this method of execution. On the other hand, the Supreme Court ruled that "the Constitution does not require the avoidance of all risk of pain." The opposition argues that there is no right or wrong way to execute death row prisoners, whether or not lethal injection is humane, these prisoners are going to and should be executed for the crimes they have committed. In this case, the most sense would to be to choose the cheapest and most effective method of execution, which is not lethal injection. Drugs can no longer be purchased from European drug makers but now have to be purchased from American pharmacists where these specific drugs are not subject to the Food and Drug Administration. These pharmacists are also displeased with trade

Lethal injection was first adopted in 1977 in the state of Oklahoma and was first administrated in the state of Texas in 1982 (Crider, 2014). Before lethal injection methods like hanging, gas chamber, firing squad, and electric chair were used to execute. The United States has tried to find an alternate method that will not be considered inhumane and painful to the inmate. The effect of lethal injection is now being questioned if it is constitutional, arises medical professionals controversy, and the shortage of drug substance.

2014 was the worst year in the 37th year history of the lethal injection. That year four executions were reported as problematic. For example on the evening of July 23, 2014, Joseph Rudolph Wood III was killed at the Florence State Penitentiary in Arizona. Wood was first convicted in 1989. He awaited the day of his execution for over 15 years. The day finally came. The execution of Wood began at exactly 1:52 MST. His death was supposed to be fast, painless, and most importantly, instantaneous. This did not actually happen that day. What was supposed to be a ten minute procedure, lasted over two whole excruciating, agonizing, two hour, of his life. The “deadly” drug cocktail that was injected into his body that

Lethal injection is now almost the main method of execution in the US, with all but one of the 39 executions carried out during 2013 being by this method. Deadly injection changes from state to state.Normally, the prisoner is strapped to a gurney or a fixed execution table, rather than an operating room table by leather or webbing straps over the body and legs. All the chemicals used in the USA are standard medical drugs. Sodium thiopental is an ultra short acting barbiturate which was used widely as an anaesthetic and causes unconsciousness very quickly if injected into a vein."Capital punishment is supposed to serve the purposes of social defense and retribution. The argument that it deters or incapacitates dangerous offenders was not conclusively supported, and analysis of data herein failed to provide solid evidence for the death penalty as a mechanism of social defense."(Sorensen & Pilgrim,2006 , p.159)

The method of using lethal injection has now become the primary method of execution, throughout all fifty states and the federal government, after being declared constitutional in 1977. There are three different procedures; the one or two drug protocol typically uses a lethal dose of an anesthetic or sedative. The three drug protocol uses an anesthetic or sedative, which is then followed by pancuronium bromide to paralyze the inmate and potassium chloride to stop the inmate’s heart. In the case of Glossip v. Gross, Oklahoma death row inmates argued that the use of the three drug protocol in Oklahoma is “an injunction against the eighth amendment” (White) which put limitations on sentences and any cruel or unusual punishment. In Oklahoma, it

muscles in the body, then the second shot will take out the lungs, while the

In recent years the thought of exactions has become more immoral. More people see that in doing so the execution could be painful or unlawful. Over the years the style of being executed has been changed, from beheading, hanging, and stoning to death now the most applicable way is lethal injection. Simply the person affiliated will be put to sleep, then the body will go into a paralytic state and lastly the lungs will stop working. Stating there are no harm to come and no pain, making this the only efficient way to carry out lethal injections. Unfortunately, there is pain and agony when it comes to the lethal injection. Many times, the one overseeing the injection will get the amounts wrong and the patient could be conscious and expressive.