Capital Punishment in America

Although many convicts who commit violent crimes like rape and murder deserve the death penalty, should they die a slow and painful death? Thirty-four states in America use some form of execution. The most popular form of execution is death by lethal injection.

Capital punishment also known as the death penalty is the execution or the killing of an individual by the state as punishment for a crime. Crimes that result in the death penalty are called capital crimes. Many people disagree whether capital punishment is moral or discourages people from committing capital crimes. Supporters of the death penalty feel that if a person takes a life, then they should forfeit their own life. Capital punishment and lethal injection is one of the most controversial topics today; it is currently on trial in the Supreme Court.

There are several methods of execution, hanging, death by shooting, the gas chamber, the electric chair and lethal injection. All executions before the 1900’s were done by hangings or firing squads. Seeking a more humane way to execute a convicted criminal other than hanging or shootings them, the electric chair was invented in 1890. The electric chair was one of the most common ways and was felt to be a more humane way to put an inmate to death but it still had it flaws. Nineteen eighty-three inmate John Evans was to die by electric chair. John Evans was sentenced to death for robbing and killing an owner of a pawnshop, while his two children where present. When the executioner flip the switch sparks and flames flew from an electrode that was attached to his leg (Radelet). The electrode broke from the strap that was holding it in place and caught fire (Radelet). Two doctors went into the chamber and found that Evans still had a heartbeat. The electrode was reconnected to Evans leg, creating more smoke and burning flesh (Radelet). Evans was still alive, so a third jolt was given. Evans execution took fourteen minutes and left Evans body badly burned and charred (Radelet). Joseph Tafero was a convicted rapist and murderer. In nineteen ninety, Joseph Tafero executed by electric chair for the murder of highway patrol officer Phillip Black and his friend Donald Irwin. The sponges in the headpiece were suppose to be synthetic and someone had replaced it with a natural sponge, once the execution began, six inch flames shot from the headpiece (Radelet). It took three jolts to put Tafero to death (Radelet). Many people thought that the inmate’s eighth amendment rights were being validated. Dr. Allen McLean Hamilton suggested the use of the gas chamber. This method of execution the inmate is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber. Under the chair is a bucket of sulfuric acid. Sodium cyanide is then released into the bucket causing a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen cyanide. There was evidence that the inmates experienced horror, pain and strangling before they died. The gas chamber was supposed to be a more humane way of putting an inmate to death. In nineteen eighty-three Jimmy Lee Gray was to die by the gas chamber in Parchman, Mississippi. Once Gray was put in the gas chamber and the gas was released, witnesses viewing the execution were sicken by what they saw. Gray suffocating and purple-faced died slamming his head against a steel pole (Seideman)(1994). Jimmy Lee Gray was convicted for kidnapping and rapping a three-year-old child; he was free on parole following a conviction in Arizona for the murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. The most common execution today is lethal injection.

Lethal injection is made up of a three drug cocktail that is given intravenously in different quantities one drug at a time. The first drug is sodium thiopental an anesthetic. If a person were being prepped for surgery, they would be given a larger dose of this drug than an inmate would receive during an execution. The next drug that is given is potassium chloride, it is suppose to cause cardiac arrest, there have been cases where inmates heart continued to beat for up to nine minutes. The last drug that is administered is pancuronium bromide, it is use to paralyze the muscles and stop the heart. Zimmer says that it would be unethical to comment on how to improve the protocols of lethal injection (New Scientist)(2007). It is without a question that if an inmate is injected with pancuronium and potassium will experience excruciating pain and a horrible death if the inmate has not been properly anesthetized (Dlouhy)(2008). Someone appointed by the warden administers the three-drug cocktail. Doctor’s are not normally apart of the execution team, because he or she could face sanctions from the American Medical Association, because they would be violating their oath to do no harm (Smyth)(2007). The three-drug cocktail is supposed to be pain free. A new study suggests that this could be wrong. Teresa Zimmers at the University of Miami in Florida and her colleagues found that the drugs used in lethal injections are each thought to be lethal in their own right (Reilly)(2007). Someone appointed by the warden administers the drugs.

The Supreme Court has put a stop to death by lethal injection until they can further investigate the triple cocktail that is used. It is believed that if the cocktail is administrated in correctly, it can cause the prisoner to suffer great pain before dying. Some states feel that this is cruel and unusual punishment (The Economist, 2007).

However the court has not suspended capital punishment itself, only the most common method of applying it (The Economist, 2007). Many states have a tight budget so they have put many of their capital punishment trials on hold, because they cannot afford to pay for their defense lawyers. Thirty-seven of the thirty-eight states that have the death penalty use lethal injection. A Kentucky lawyer has filed sued in the Supreme Court. This lawyer did not file sued as to his clients innocence or not, but to whether the death penalty would cause his client to die a painful death. The state of Kentucky contends that there has been no evidence of great pain using the current method of execution (Totenbery, 2008). Some of the death penalty opponents say that there is plenty of evidence that the drugs used can cause pain and suffering. The death penalty has also been halted in Florida after an execution gone wrong. Angel Diaz from Florida was executed by lethal injection for allegedly robbing and killing the owner of a nigh club. Diaz claimed that he did not pull the trigger and there was never any evidence or witness that said he shot the owner. The doctor who served as the executioner inserted the first set of drugs into Diaz’s arm but the needle went through his veins and into his soft tissues releasing the toxic chemicals (Economist)(2007). It was said that Diaz was in horrible pain and try to speak when the second dose of drugs killed