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Legal but immorally wrong death penalty
The history of capital punishment
Death penalty legal or not
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Dying painfully is unconstitutional but there is a way to die pain free and yet, we have to use it while delivering the death penalty to inmates. Imagine a death row inmate that was sentenced to life for murdering a small family. Even though the convict should die painfully, we cannot enforce that in the United States legally. If the government wants the inmates to die pain free then we shall give it to them in the best way. A good percentage of the general population would prefer a death row inmate get served the death penalty rather than have their taxes go to feeding, housing, etc. the individual. As there are a million ways to kill an inmate, there are five forms of the death penalty, and one should be the dominant killing process: lethal gas.
The death penalty has quite the history from the 1870s to present day. Starting back in 1874, four states had begun to allow the death penalty. The timeline of executions would start with lynching inmates then follow to electrocution, lethal gas, lethal injection, and finally, a firing squad. Electrocution was adopted first by New York in 1888 as imposed by Thomas Edison. Multiple states had begun using electrocution as the key method of killing an inmate after 1913. In some prisons around the United States, convicts were allowed to choose their method of execution. Lethal gas has been used since 1924 when "Nevada is the first state to adopt lethal gas as an execution method following the use of poisonous gas in WWI, and execute Gee Jon for murder in a specially designed chamber" (“Capital Punishment Timeline”) Lethal injection was produced after lethal gas in attempt to "free" the inmate from pain. (Adoption date sentence)
Inmates have received a punishment of being hung since 184...
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...eing electrocuted would be rather painful therefore; no inmate would choose that particular death penalty. Even though the vile inmates that have received the death penalty have committed horrendous crimes, we cannot enforce cruel and unusual punishment, but we can enforce lethal gas into their systems.
Works Cited
"Capital Punishment Timeline." Capital Punishment Timeline. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
"Lethal Injection Procedures." Lethal Injection Procedures. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
"Methods of Execution." Methods of Execution. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Nicholson, Richard H. “Is Capital Punishment Ever Ethical?.” Hastings Center Report 25.4 (1995): 5. Academic Search Elite. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
(get two death penalty book citations)
"Nurses Face Libyan Firing Squad." Nursing Standard 18.35 (2004): 5. Academic Search Elite. Web. 27 Feb. 2014
The death penalty is a cruel and unusual punishment which is strictly prohibited by the 8th amendment. William J. Brennan, Jr., JD, the Former US Supreme Court Justice, stated "Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality, and in its enormity, but it serves no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment; therefore the principle inherent in the Clause that prohibits pointless infliction of excessive punishment when less severe punishment can adequately achieve the same purposes invalidates the punishment." Gregg v Georgia [1976]. After committing a crime all criminals will face some form of punishment after the action. As the honorable William J. Brennan stated above, if you can still bring justice to the crimes committed why would one go the extra mile to take somebody’s life. This makes the death penalty look spiteful and cruel. Even though criminals should be fully held for their actions and are not worthy of supporting in a jail cell, these arguments do serve a purpose. It is against America’s ethics as a country that follows the Constitution to continue these executions and makes the US look hypocritical and inhumane when trying to be the role model for the
than imprisonment, but how can being fried alive possibly be humane? How can suffering beyond belief be better than correction? There are many cases where it has taken two or three courses to kill a patient. There are many methods of execution. There are lethal injection, the gas chamber, hanging, firing squads and electrocution. All of these are currently still in use in the U.S.A. In...
Don't you think that putting people to death is brutal? Wouldn't you rather have them stay in prison for the rest of their lives? In fact, it costs far more to execute a person then to keep him or her in prison for life. The EighthAmendment states that it prevents cruel and unusual punishment, and the death penalty is violating it. The Supreme Court case, McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) violates the Eighth Amendment purpose. Therefore, the death penalty clearly defies the Eighth Amendment and shouldn't be used for people who have convicted murder.
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 2 Cruel and Unusual Punishment in the United States: Continuity and Change within the Last Two Centuries A significant aspect of the eighth amendment to the United States Constitution is that the infliction of cruel and unusual punishments is prohibited. However, interpretations of the definition of what a cruel and unusual punishment consists of have become extremely ambiguous. For example, many argue that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is cruel to take another person’s life willingly; however, others argue that it is acceptable if it is done in a controlled and humane manner. Over the course of the United States history, punishments have ranged from public whippings and hangings, to the electric chair and life in prison. Physical punishments have decreased as society has progressed, yet they continue to be a major source of controversy.
The death penalty is not cruel.[7] Forms of execution that are utilized are methods where the brain does not have a chance to feel pain.
Despite the fact that the United States Supreme Court has not yet dubbed the death penalty unconstitutional, it violates the Constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment, including torture. The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma is a good example of how the death penalty is considered a form of cruel and unusual punishment. When Lockett was injected with an untested mixture of drugs that were previously not used for lethal injections, he was declared unconscious ten minutes into the execution. He was reported to have writhed, groaned, and spoken a few words and also attempted to rise from the table 14 minutes after being injected. Even though the execution was halted 33 minutes into the execution, Lockett died of a heart attack 43 minutes after being sedated. An execution that uses the lethal injection usually takes about 5 to 18 minutes to kill the victim. The fact that it took that long for Lockett to die and seemed to cause him immense pain concludes that he was tortured to death, which is unconstitutional.
Pennsylvania switched to electrocution in Nineteen Thirteen because; it was considered more humane then hanging (Powell, 2014). Death was reported in most cases of electrocution to be instantaneous, with only a few cases where the chair had malfunctioned and the criminal had to be electrocuted for a second time after the chair had been repaired. In cases of hangings more often than not, the prisoner hung for thirty minutes or more with a broken neck before succumbing to asphyxiation.
The concept of capital punishment has long been a part of human civilization with the first known laws mentioning it being the Code of Hammurabi in the 18th Century BC. In the United States the death penalty has been part of the legal system of since Colonial times with the first recorded legal execution occurring in the Jamestown Colony in 1608. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Furman vs. Georgia ruled that the death penalty as then currently practiced was unconstitutional and instituted a moratorium on capital punishment in the United States. This ruling was reversed in ...
Capital punishment is a form of taking someone 's life in order to repay for the crime that they have committed. Almost all capital punishment sentences in the United States of America have been imposed for homicide since the 1970 's. Ever since the reinstatement after 38 years of being banned, there has been intense debate among Americans regarding the constitutionality of capital punishment. Critics say that executions are violations of the “cruel and unusual punishment” provision of the Eighth Amendment. Some capital punishment cases require a separate penalty trial to be made, at which time the jury reviews if there is the need for capital punishment. In 1982, the first lethal injection execution was performed in Texas. Some other common methods of execution used are electrocution, a firing squad, and lethal gas. In recent years, the US Supreme Court has made it more difficult for death row prisoners to file appeals. Nearly 75 percent of Americans support the death sentence as an acceptable form of punishment. The other fourth have condemned it. Some major disagreements between supporters and non-supporters include issues of deterrence,
The very first legal executions came in the United States was during the Revolutionary War against Great Britain. British soldiers hung the first person to die by the death penalty, Nathan Hale, for espionage (Farrell).
We kill people to show them killing is wrong. The death penalty does not punish people for killing but for murdering someone. Murder is "the unlawful, malicious, or permitted killing of one human being by another" (Carmical 1). The slogan should be ?We execute people to show people that murder is wrong.? The death penalty is racist, it punishes the poor, it causes the innocent to die, it is not a deterrent against violent crime, and it is cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is wrong and it should be abolished.
Americans have argued over the death penalty since the early days of our country. In the United States only 38 states have capital punishment statutes. As of year ended in 1999, in Texas, the state had executed 496 prisoners since 1930. The laws in the United States have change drastically in regards to capital punishment. An example of this would be the years from 1968 to 1977 due to the nearly 10 year moratorium. During those years, the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment violated the Eight Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. However, this ended in 1976, when the Supreme Court reversed the ruling. They stated that the punishment of sentencing one to death does not perpetually infringe the Constitution. Richard Nixon said, “Contrary to the views of some social theorists, I am convinced that the death penalty can be an effective deterrent against specific crimes.”1 Whether the case be morally, monetarily, or just pure disagreement, citizens have argued the benefits of capital punishment. While we may all want murders off the street, the problem we come to face is that is capital punishment being used for vengeance or as a deterrent.
The use of capital punishment in the U.S. is a growing concern for most American citizens. According to statistics, seventy percent of Americans are in support of the death penalty, while only thirty percent are against it. These statistics show that few people are against capital punishment (“Fact” 1). With the use of the death penalty growing the controversy is becoming more heated. With only twelve states left not enforcing it the resistance is becoming futile (“Fact” 4). Many debates have been made and even clauses have been invoked, such as, the “Cruel and Unusual Clause” that was invoked by the Supreme Court in 1962 (Meltsner 179). The use of death as a punishment has been viewed as “cruel and unusual,” but in further research the view of what is considered “cruel and unusual” has been reduced drastically (Berns 31). America’s method of punishments has been reduced from several extremely painful execution methods, to four quick and less painful punishments. They consist of line of execution, gas chamber, electric chair, and the most popular lethal injection (“Ways” 1-4). The debate about the death penalty consists in both ethical and religious viewpoints.
To start off, I will discuss the history of the death penalty. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the Eighteenth Century B.C. in the code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. Death sentences were carried out by such means as crucifixion, boiling, beheading, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement.
It must be remembered that criminals are real people too, which have. life and with it, the feeling of pain, fear and the loss of their loved ones and all the other emotions that the rest of us feel. There is no such thing as a humane way of putting someone to death. Every type of execution causes the prisoner physical suffering, some. methods perhaps cause less than others, but be in no doubt that being.