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