The Pros And Cons Of Capital Punishment

“About 80% of Teas executions have had one problem or another. In the final analysis, it looks disgusting”, says Fred Leuchter, inventor of the Lethal Injection Machine. The death penalty is nothing but a violent crime, an act of petty revenge, and most importantly, a violation of the eighth amendment. It is a cruel process, and causes unnecessary pain for the relatives of the executionees. On April 12, 1983, a one Mr. Evans was sentenced to be put to death by the electric chair. But, the technicians erred, and the total length of the procedure expanded to fourteen minutes. Many problems such as the one of Mr.Evans, happen while the execution is taking place. Additionally, every year, many innocent

For most proper execution of lethal drugs have been able to declare the inmate dead between six to 13 minutes after. Yet, sometimes not everything goes as planned. In the case of Clayton Lockett, an inmate from Oklahoma, his execution started late. Not only that, but after being given the first drug, a sedative to help them become unconscious, did not actually make him unconscious. But the physician who had checked him made a mistake and thought he was conscious and allowed the two other drugs to be given to Lockett. One drug to paralyze him and the other drug to make his heart stop. Lockett writhed in pain for a few minutes; then having the execution halted after a physician found that the vein had ruptured. He died 43 minutes after the execution had begun, of a massive heart attack. Also it

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

In 2014, convicted killer Joseph R. Wood III was executed by lethal injection. The execution took nearly two hours in which Woods reportedly “gasped and struggled to breath.” Inmates at an Oklahoma prison believed that the drug was unconstitutional because it can be associated with cruel and unusual punishment. The prisoners took the issue to federal court. On June 29, 2015 the Supreme Court ruled against three death row inmates in Oklahoma who wanted to remove the specific execution drug which could risk the cause of excruciating pain. This case can be directly linked to the 8th Amendment on cruel and unusual punishment. 5 out of the 9 judges believed that the drug did work in knocking the guilty unconscious in the first stages of the

Although many Americans probably think the death penalty is the right punishment for someone who has hurt people, but have they ever thought about how inhumane it is. Well, I am here to prove that point by telling yet another story about a convicted inmate. Clayton Lockett was convicted to a death sentence. He knew eventually how he was going to receive the death sentence, but he thought, just like his correctional officer, he was going to die painlessly and quickly. Clayton did not die by lethal injection, but of a heart attack. According to the Washington Post, Clayton did not he until 43 minutes after 3 injectable drugs,of a heart attack. The same article An Inhumane Death explains that they said it took the man this long due to an exploded vein. This and 7% of death

After years of experimenting, we still can’t find a quick, tidy, and humane way to kill someone. Complications within the executions are more common than you might think. For example, on July 23, 2014, prison officials in Arizona needed nearly two hours to kill murderer Joseph Wood. A reporter who witnessed the execution said he counted 640 gasps from Wood before he finally died.

Throughout capital punishment's history, there have been an assortment of ways that it has been did keeping in mind the end goal to execute the censured in the most accommodating way imaginable. On the other hand, for every system that has been utilized as a way to endeavor to execute lawbreakers, there have been imperfect endeavors that have brought on extreme agony and languishing over those that have needed to persevere through the procedure. For the procedure of hangings, a typical method for execution in the nineteenth century, the overall population was insulted and horrified to see the censured "battle for five minutes toward the end of the rope," (Haines). The hot seat has reported a few occasions where numerous endeavors were made to execute a criminal before the demonstration was really completed, for example, with the execution of John Louis Evans III (Haines). Indeed, even the more present day method for execution have their defective endeavors, for example, with deadly infusion. The execution of Stephen McCoy in May of 1989 is a prime sample of this. As per witnesses, McCoy responded roughly to the medications managed to him and was seen choking, viciously hacking, and experiencing body reshapings (Haines). Illustrations like this demonstrate the frameworks that we have set up have genuine defects in them. From an ethical point of view, one can't willing and with an

Showing statistics such as this to go against the death penalty can make it difficult for people to find a reason to keep utilizing it if it only has an overall negative affect. Childress also mentions how the methods for carrying out the executions are becoming more difficult due to factors such as, the European Union banning the export of the drugs needed to perform the executions like the sedative sodium thiopental (EU). Childress mentions the “bloody mess” of an execution of Clayton Lockett who sprayed blood everywhere after having an artery in his leg punctured by an IV, and he finally died after enduring forty five minutes of agonizing pain and suffering. Examples such as this would also make it very hard for most to find a reason to continue the death penalty. Not only is it not always efficient, the supplies used to perform them are becoming limited, forcing officials to resort to other options that could potentially cause the action be more painful or even expensive. For example, in Tennessee where lawmakers have reinstated the use of the electric chair for cases where there is a lack in supply of the drugs necessary(Childress). Finally, Childress mentions the continuously growing doubts of the fairness of the death penalty. She brings mention the never-ending argument of whether the results of certain cases are affected by the race of the

First proposed by a Scottish pharmacologist by the name of Sir Robert Christison in 1846, lethal injection was later implemented for the first time in 1977 by American medical examiner Jay Chapman as a way to supplement previous forms of capital punishment seen as painful. This relatively new form of execution has been the primary form of capital punishment in five countries, including the United States, for about the past thirty years, but has come under much criticism in recent years for its presumed inhumane proceedings. Near fifteen hundred lethal injections have been performed in the United States alone since the procedure’s introduction and some question the court system’s authority to subject individuals to what they claim is cruel and unusual punishment (Clark, 1995). Furthermore, despite the current legality of lethal injection instated by the Supreme Court, serious debates and protests over the controversial issue still take place. Is lethal injection more humane than hanging or firing squad, or is it pain so unimaginable no one alive has truly felt it?

Thirty one year old Ronald Clark O’Bryan was the third man to be executed on March 31, 1984. He was a white male, had no prior prison records, and there was no co-defendants. O’Bryan was convicted of murdering his son Timothy O’Bryan, by poising his Halloween candy with cyanide. Picture a man sitting in a dark room blindfolded with his legs and hands tied. Two thousand volts of electricity are going into his body. It only takes five seconds for this person to die. He is not a victim. He has received what the American justice system calls the worst punishment that can be given. Yet we find Capital Punishment to still be a controversial topic. My first topic of discussion will be the humane ways of ending a life when performed appropriately. My second topic of discussion is the financial burden of prosecuting a death penalty case verses the cost of ending a life. The final topic of discussion is how the bible, culture and race have played apart in the foundation of the death penalty. The death penalty should be used in all states.

The length of time it takes for the inmate to reach the point of death can be anywhere from thirty minutes to a few hours. It can be difficult to find a vein to inject the drugs into, it can be a longer process than needed just to find a vein in someone's arm. Inmates with drug habits can be especially difficult to find a vein that is useable. There has been several cases where it took up to an hour just to find a vein. This is unacceptable because there was not a proper medical doctor doing this, so it took longer than it should have. There has also been incidents where it took two attempts to do the execution. This, again, is from not having a proper medical doctor.

Background Information - This is the story of Clayton Lockett, who died 43 minutes later of a heart attack (“Death Penalty” 1). And he was not the only one to ever suffer before dying. Lockett was the victim of one of 46 well-known botched executions in the U.S. since 1982, and was one of hundreds to have been in extreme pain before dying. In our country’s frantic, failing effort to reduce the number of homicides that occur in our nation today, 80 criminals in the U.S. were sentenced to death last year and almost 40 of them were brutally killed by an overdose of lethal

One of many arguments against the use of the death penalty is the potential of breaking the 8th Amendment of the US Constituents (1791) which bans “cruel and unusual punishments” (Legal Dictionary, n.d., p. 1467). In relation to the death penalty, particularly following the case of Furman v Georgia (1972), the Supreme Court established four basic principles to be followed when determining if a method of punishment is to be considered ‘cruel and unusual’. These include that any punishment that degrades human dignity (including torture), inflicted in only arbitrary manners, punishments that are (or would be) rejected by society, and punishment that is clearly unnecessary (Legal Dictionary, n.d.). It has been noted though by researchers that the phrase of ‘cruel and unusual’ is one of many vague statements that is arguably subject to interpretation (Sarat & Vidmar, 1976). Despite the attempt to avoid such inhumane acts, there are several case studies of ‘botched executions’ that would could be deemed ‘cruel and unusual’, including that of Angel Nieves Diaz who was executed in Florida in 2006 via lethal injection. As reported in NBC News (2006) the needles containing the ‘triple cocktail’ were injected directly into soft tissue resulting in not only chemical burns on both of his arms, but an extremely painful death that took 34 minutes instead of the earlier stated 15 minutes. A direct quote is used in this article from Jonathan Groner, an associate professor of surgery at Ohio State Medical School, stating that “it really sounds like he was tortured to death” (n.p.).

The way we carry out these executions is by lethal injection, which is much more humane than any ways we have carried it out in historical times (McCuen 27). A prison official had claimed, “The guy will just go to sleep forever. It will be easy-real easy” (49). He says said this when referring to a man who was on death row. By using lethal injection, the United States is ridding itself of criminals, and is carrying it out in the most humane way possible (Kurtz). Professor John McAdams of Marquette University said, “If we execute murderers and there is in fact no deterrent effect, we have killed a bunch of murderers. If we fail to execute murderers, and doing so would in fact have deterred other murderers, we have allowed the killing of a bunch of innocent victims. I would much rather risk the former. This, to me, is not a tough call” (Marzilli 21).

In 1879, the United States Supreme Court ruled, by a vote of 9-0, that execution by firing squad was not cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. This began a long debate on whether or not a government reserves the right to punish those who have taken a life by taking their lives. There are many reasons as to why someone would be against capital punishment: it is not our right as humans to play God, it is against the constitution, the threat of capital punishment is not a valid deterrent, it is morally corrupt to take a life. All of these points are valid, and they represent the mindset of millions of Americans; however, capital punishment is a valuable asset to be reserved for only “the most heinous murders and the most brutal and conscienceless murderers” (Alice).