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The methods of death penalty in america
History of capital punishment in usa
The methods of death penalty in america
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The death penalty has been used in the United States since the beginning. America was greatly influenced by Great Britain. They used the death penalty there and when the British colonized America, they continued the practice here.
Here in the United States there are different forms of execution used. Lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging and firing squad: While lethal injection is an acceptable form of execution in all states, there are states that use alternative methods.
In addition to lethal injection, electrocution is used in 8 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
There are 3 states that use the gas chamber in addition to lethal injection. Those states are Arizona, Missouri, and Wyoming.
There are also 3 states that use hanging in addition to lethal injection they are Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington State.
Believe it or not there are also two states that use the firing squad as a form of execution and they are Oklahoma and Utah.
People executed from 1977 to 2009 were a total of 1,188. Of those executed ...
Some people may consider the death penalty as inhumane. As stated in the article, Naked City, by Rita Radostitz, Texas uses three chemicals in the lethal injection process: sodium thiopental (an extremely short-term anesthetic), pancuronium bromide (which paralyses the diaphragm and other muscles so the inmate is unable to move or speak, even if he is in pain), and potassium chloride (which stops the heart).
Georgia is one of the thirty – five states that allow the death penalty. Since 1735 Georgia continues the death penalty. The most famous trails of the death penalty have originated in Georgia. Today in more modern times we have changed our methods tremendously. I will elaborate more about the death penalty in Georgia and a famous inmate and their background information.
All through the history of our country, we have sentenced people to death as the last form of punishment for grave crimes. Even before our founding fathers wrote the constitution and its amendments, the colonies had public executions. Capital punishment
Unfortunately, this is not a scene in a horror flick; these are the surroundings of an actual prison execution. As early as the founding of the United States, capital punishment has been a controversial and hotly debated public issue. The three most common forms of death penalties currently used in the United States are the gas chamber, electrocution, and lethal injection. The firing squad is an option in Idaho, Oklahoma, and Utah; and death by hanging still remains an option in New Hampshire and Washington state.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the most common method of execution among states with the death penalty is lethal injection, which is authorized by 35 states, as well as the U.S. Military and the U.S. Government. Smaller numbers of states continue to use methods such as electrocution, gas chambers, hanging, and even firing squads
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.
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 death penalty continues to be an issue of controversy and is an issue that will be debated in the United States for many years to come. According to Hugo A. Bedau, the writer of “The Death Penalty in America”, capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty has been used since ancient times for a variety of offenses. The Bible says that death should be done to anyone who commits murder, larceny, rapes, and burglary. It appears that public debate on the death penalty has changed over the years and is still changing, but there are still some out there who are for the death penalty and will continue to believe that it’s a good punishment. I always hear a lot of people say “an eye for an eye.” Most people feel strongly that if a criminal took the life of another, their’s should be taken away as well, and I don’t see how the death penalty could deter anyone from committing crimes if your going to do the crime then at that moment your not thinking about being on death role. I don’t think they should be put to death they should just sit in a cell for the rest of their life and think about how they destroy other families. A change in views and attitudes about the death penalty are likely attributed to results from social science research. The changes suggest a gradual movement toward the eventual abolition of capital punishment in America (Radelet and Borg, 2000).
Different forms of the death penalty are more humane than others. In the 1920's people decided that lethal gas, or the gas chamber, was more humane than death by electrocution. Nevada was the first state to adopt the gas chamber as their form of execution. The "Humane Death Bill" was passed abolishing all other forms of execution (Hanging or firing squad were the only other two forms of execution at that time) in the state of Nevada, this bill was signed by the governor on March 28, 1921.
The death penalty has been around since the time of Jesus Christ. Executions have been recorded from the 1600s to present times. From about 1620, the executions by year increased in the US. It has been a steady increase up until the 1930s; later the death penalty dropped to zero in the 1970s and then again rose steadily. US citizens said that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was believed that it was "cruel and unusual" punishment (Amnesty International). In the 1970s, the executions by year dropped between zero and one then started to rise again in the 1980s. In the year 2000, there were nearly one hundred executions in the US (News Batch). On June 29, 1972, the death penalty was suspended because the existing laws were no longer convincing. However, four years after this occurred, several cases came about in Georgia, Florida, and Texas where lawyers wanted the death penalty. This set new laws in these states and later the Supreme Court decided that the death penalty was constitutional under the Eighth Amendment (Amnesty International).
Almost all nations in the world either have the death sentence or have had it at one time. It was used in most cases to punish those who broke the laws or standards that were expected of them. Since the death penalty wastes tax money, is inhumane, and is largely unnecessary it should be abolished in every state across the United States. The use of the death penalty puts the United States in the same category as countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia which are two of the world’s worst human rights violators (Friedman 34). Lauri Friedman quotes, “Executions simply inject more violence into an already hostile American society.”
provide for the total abolition of the death penalty but allows states wishing to do so to retain the death penalty in wartime as an exception (Facts and Figures…2000). There are several different procedures that are used to execute such as hanging, the electric chair, gas chamber, lethal injection and the fire squad, which is still used in Idaho and Utah (The Death Penalty, 2000). The death penalty is abolished for all crimes under the Human Rights because it is believed to be inhumane, cruel and degrading, but it is still enforced today. The death penalty should also be abolished because the failure to prevent the execution of the innocent and the cost for executions are outrageous.
The death penalty has been around for centuries. It dates back to when Hammurabi had his laws codified; it was “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Capital punishment in America started when spies were caught, put on trial and hung. In the past and still today people argue that, the death penalty is cruel, unusual punishment and should be illegal. Yet many people argue that it is in fact justifiable and it is not cruel and unusual. Capital punishment is not cruel and unusual; the death penalty is fair and there is evidence that the death penalty deters crime.
There are several different ways of being killed and executed. One of the ways is by lethal injection this will cause immediate death. It first puts the person to sleep and then it stops breathing and then the final stage it stops the heart. This method was first used in the United States, but is now legal in China, Guatemala, Vietnam, and Thailand. The next execution is by electrocution which is done by using an electric chair. A person is strapped to a wooden chair and then is electrocuted by switches connected to the chair. In the movie The Green Mile it is about a prison that executes inmates using the death penalty of an electric chair. The process used for the electric chair is they strap down the inmate to the chair then with a wet sponge they put it on top of the head of the inmate then they strap like a helmet on him. In order one of the officer’s tells the other officer by switches to turn on the switches one by one until all 3 are turned out and until he knows the inmate will be dead. The next type of execution is the Gas chamber this execution
There are many different types of ways to be legally executed: electric shock, lethal injection, firing squad, etc. Though, no matter which of the many ways a criminal can be executed, it is always barbaric to allow "state-sanctioned murder before a crowd of people"( Messerli). The United States