Ultimate Punishment

Capital Punishment

This day in age murderers' actions are getting more and more incomprehensive. They

are no longer just committing murder: they are torturing, mutilating, and engaging in grossly

inappropriate acts against fellow human beings. Behaviors such as this will continue if nothing

is done to stop them. The death penalty is a humane way to punish the convicted and deter these

gruesome acts. Early as 1930, we can find the first recorded execution. Between the times of 1930

to 1967 there was a recorded number of 3,859 people executed. The following nine years would

bring victory for those against capital punishment, there was no executions done in this time

frame. Gregg vs. Georgia, Supreme Court of 1976 made a ruling that "the death penalty does not

violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment." The death penalty has

been accepted by thirty-nine states of America (Newton, 1983). One of the basics in understanding

capital punishment is the methods of which are used. Which will be the first of things I will be

presenting. I will be showing how selections of death row are made. The last of subject matters

that I will be touching on are the problems with the process of capital punishment and a possible

more effective approach. I will also be concluding my findings and ending with a thought of my

own. Methods of Execution In the United States today, there are five existing methods of

execution. These methods are used to kill convicted criminals that have been given the sentence

of the death penalty. The different methods are; lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber,

hanging, and firing squad shootings. Lethal injection is currently used by thirty-six states in

America. It is the most commonly used from of execution in the U.S. The preparation begins

outside of the chamber with the use of a gurney. The convict is held to the gurney by wrist and

ankle straps. There is then a cardiac monitor and stethoscope attached and started. In each arm

there is a saline intravenous line. The convict is then covered by a sheet. The lines are turned

off and the felon receives the first injection of sodium thiopental. This puts the felon to

sleep. They are then injected with Pavulon, which relaxes all of the muscles in the body and

stops breathing. Shortly after, the felon dies. The next method of execution used is

electrocution. This method is done by putting the person in a wooden chair, which they are

secured to by leather straps. The electric current runs through the head and out the leg. The

first current is of two thousand or more volts of electricity, lasting only an approximated three

seconds. The voltage is then lowered to help prevent external burning of the body. The initial

shock of the electricity causes the person's body to surge forward. The shock burns the internal

organs or the person, which leaves them dead. During this process urinating, vomiting of blood,

change in skin color, and even swelling or burning of the skin may occur. This method of

execution is currently used by only eleven states. In a gas chamber execution the prisoner is put

in a sealed steel chamber. The prisoner is restrained in a chair that has a pan below. At the

first signal a valve is opened which releases hydrochloric acid into the pan. When a second

signal is given tablets or crystals of about eight ounces of potassium cyanide is dropped into

the acid. This combination creates a hydrocyanic gas. The fumes of this deadly gas rise and are

inhaled by the prisoner, which kills them. The prisoner is pronounced dead and then the gas is

sucked out of the chamber by big fans. Before the body is taken out it is sprayed with ammonia to

neutralize any gas that still existed. Execution by the gas chamber started in attempt to find a

more humane method than the electric chair. The gas chamber is currently used by only five

states, that is less than electrocution. One of the oldest methods of execution that is still

used, though in only three states, is hanging. This method is based on the person's weight;

therefore the person must be weighed prior to the hanging. The right amount of weight is needed

in "the drop" to make sure that the death is instant and of minimal bruising (Sandholzer, 1999).

If the weight is not of the proper amount it can cause a person to be strangled or possibly

beheaded. The way that this is performed is by the use of a noose, which is placed behind the

person's left ear. When dropped the person's neck is dislocated, causing death. The last of

executions still used, which is also an old one, is shooting by a firing squad. Execution by a

firing squad is the most popular in the world. More than sixty countries use it as a method. In

the United States, however, only three states use shooting by a fire squad as a sentence to the

death penalty. The way in which a shooting takes place starts by the prisoner being