CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT
Group 6
JAVIER, MARY GRACE
TUGUINAY, BLESS
BOLINEY, DHENZER
BUGTONG, RICHARDSON
DE LEON, MILES
FERNANDEZ, JAIME
1-HAV
Introduction to capital punishment
Capital punishment is the practice of executing someone as punishment for a specific
crime after a proper legal trial.
It can only be used by a state, so when non-state organizations speak of having 'executed'
a person they have actually committed a murder. It is usually only used as a punishment for
particularly serious types of murder, but in some countries treason, types of fraud, adultery and
rape are capital crimes. The phrase 'capital punishment' comes from the Latin word for the head.
A 'corporal' punishment, such as flogging, takes its name from the Latin word for the body.
Capital punishment is used in many countries around the world. According to Amnesty
International as at May 2012, 141 countries have abolished the death penalty either in law on in
practice. Source: Amnesty In 2008, there was a growing reluctance among those countries that
do retain the death penalty to use it in practice. In 2008, only 25 out of 59 countries that retain
the death penalty carried out executions.
Amnesty International, March 2009
China executes the most people per year overall, with an estimated figure of 1,718 in
2008. Amnesty International also states that in 2008 Iran executed at least 346 people, the USA
111, Saudi Arabia 102 and Pakistan 36. Details of which countries are abolitionist and which are
retentions can be found on the Amnesty website.
In China, at least 1,718 people were executed and at least 7,003 people were known to
have been sentenced to death in 2008. These figures represent minimum estimates - real figures
are undoubtedly higher. However, the continued refusal by the Chinese authorities to release
public information on the use of the death penalty means that in China the death penalty remains
shrouded in secrecy.
Amnesty International, March 2009
There is now steadily increasing support for abolishing capital punishment. On 18
December 2008, the United Nations adopted resolution 63/168, which is a reaffirmation of its
call for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty (62/149) passed in December the previous
year. The resolution calls for states to freeze executions with a view to eventual abolition. The
World Coalition against the Death Penalty was created in Rome in 2002, and 10th October 2006
was World Day against the Death Penalty. Capital punishment, also called death penalty,
execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a criminal
offense. Capital punishment should be distinguished from extrajudicial executions carried out
without due process of law. The term death penalty is sometimes used interchangeably with
capital punishment, though imposition of the penalty is not always followed by execution (even
when it is upheld on appeal), because of the possibility of commutation to life imprisonment.
Arguments For and Against Capital Punishment
Capital punishment has long engendered considerable debate about both its morality and its
effect on criminal behavior. Contemporary arguments for and against capital punishment fall
under three general headings: moral, utilitarian, and practical.
Protesters demonstrating against the death penalty.© Robert J. Daveant/Shutterstock.com
Moral arguments
Supporters of the death penalty believe that those who commit murder, because they have
taken the life of another, have forfeited their own right to life. Furthermore, they believe, capital
punishment is a just form of retribution, expressing and reinforcing the moral indignation not
only of the victim’s relatives but of law-abiding citizens in general. By contrast, opponents of
capital punishment, following the writings of Cesare Beccaria (in particular On Crimes and
Punishments [1764]), argue that, by legitimizing the very behaviour that the law seeks to
repress—killing—capital punishment is counterproductive in the moral message it conveys.
Moreover, they urge, when it is used for lesser crimes, capital punishment is immoral because it
is wholly disproportionate to the harm done. Abolitionists also claim that capital punishment
violates the condemned person’s right to life and is fundamentally inhuman and degrading.
Although death was prescribed for crimes in many sacred religious documents and
historically was practiced widely with the support of religious hierarchies, today there is no
agreement among religious faiths, or among denominations or sects within them, on the morality
of capital punishment. Beginning in the last half of the 20th century, increasing numbers of
religious leaders—particularly within Judaism and Roman Catholicism—campaigned against it.
Capital punishment was abolished by the state of Israel for all offenses except treason and crimes
against humanity, and Pope John Paul II condemned it as “cruel and unnecessary.”
Utilitarian arguments
Supporters of capital punishment also claim that it has a uniquely potent deterrent effect
on potentially violent offenders for whom the threat of imprisonment is not a sufficient restraint.
Opponents, however, point to research that generally has demonstrated that the death penalty is
not a more effective deterrent than the alternative sanction of life or long-term imprisonment.
Practical arguments
There also are disputes about whether capital punishment can be administered in a
manner consistent with justice. Those who support capital punishment believe that it is possible
to fashion laws and procedures that ensure that only those who are really deserving of death are
executed. By contrast, opponents maintain that the historical application of capital punishment
shows that any attempt to single out certain kinds of crime as deserving of death will inevitably
be arbitrary and discriminatory. They also point to other factors that they think preclude the
possibility that capital punishment can be fairly applied, arguing that the poor and ethnic and
religious minorities often do not have access to good legal assistance, that racial prejudice
motivates predominantly white juries in capital cases to convict black and other nonwhite
defendants in disproportionate numbers, and that, because errors are inevitable even in a well-run
criminal justice system, some people will be executed for crimes they did not commit. Finally,
they argue that, because the appeals process for death sentences is protracted, those condemned
to death are often cruelly forced to endure long periods of uncertainty about their fate.
The Abolition Movement
Under the influence of the European Enlightenment, in the latter part of the 18th century
there began a movement to limit the scope of capital punishment. Until that time a very wide
range of offenses, including even common theft, were punishable by death—though the
punishment was not always enforced, in part because juries tended to acquit defendants against
the evidence in minor cases. In 1794 the U.S. state of Pennsylvania became the first jurisdiction
to restrict the death penalty to first-degree murder, and in 1846 the state of Michigan abolished
capital punishment for all murders and other common crimes. In 1863 Venezuela became the
first country to abolish capital punishment for all crimes, including serious offenses against the
state (e.g., treason and military offenses in time of war). Portugal was the first European country
to abolish the death penalty, doing so in 1867; by the early 20th century several other countries,
including the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy, had followed suit (though it
was reintroduced in Italy under the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini). By the mid-1960s some
25 countries had abolished the death penalty for murder, though only about half of them also had
abolished it for offenses against the state or the military code. For example, Britain abolished
capital punishment for murder in 1965, but treason, piracy, and military crimes remained capital
offenses until 1998.
(1983) and to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1989) have been
established, under which countries party to the convention and the covenantundertake not to
carry out executions. The Council of Europe (1994) and the EU (1998) established as a condition
of membership in their organizations the requirement that prospective member countries suspend
executions and commit themselves to abolition. This decision had a remarkable impact on the
countries of central and eastern Europe, prompting several of them—e.g., the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia—to abolish capital punishment. In the 1990s many
African countries—including Angola, Djibouti, Mozambique, and Namibia—abolished capital
punishment, though most African countries retained it. In South Africa, which formerly had one
of the world’s highest execution rates, capital punishment was outlawed in 1995 by the
Capital Punishment In The Early 21st Century
Despite the movement toward abolition, many countries have retained capital
punishment, and, in fact, some have extended its scope. More than 30 countries have made the
importation and possession for sale of certain drugs a capital offense. Iran, Singapore, Malaysia,
and the Philippines impose a mandatory death sentence for the possession of relatively small
amounts of illegal drugs. In Singapore, which has by far the highest rate of execution per capita
of any country, about three-fourths of persons executed in 2000 had been sentenced for drug
offenses. Some 20 countries impose the death penalty for various economic crimes, including
bribery and corruption of public officials, embezzlement of public funds, currency speculation,
and the theft of large sums of money. Sexual offenses of various kinds are punishable by death in
about two dozen countries, including most Islamic states. In the early 21st century there were
more than 50 capital offenses in China.
Types of Punishment
Lethal Injection
In 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of
execution, though it would be five more years until Charles Brooks would become the first
person executed by lethal injection in Texas on December 2, 1982. Today, all of the 32 states
that have the death penalty use this method. When this method is used, the condemned person is
usually bound to a gurney and a member of the execution team positions several heart monitors
on this skin. Two needles (one is a back-up) are then inserted into usable veins, usually in the
inmate’s arms. Long tubes connect the needle through a hole in a cement block wall to several
intravenous drips. The first is a harmless saline solution that is started immediately. Then, at the
warden's signal, a curtain is raised exposing the inmate to the witnesses in an adjoining room.
Then, the inmate is injected with sodium thiopental - an anesthetic, which puts the inmate to
sleep. Next flows pavulon or pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscle system
and stops the inmate's breathing. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart. Death
results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person
is unconscious. (Ecenbarger, 1994 and Weisberg, 1991) Medical ethics preclude doctors from
participating in executions. However, a doctor will certify the inmate is dead. This lack of
medical participation can be problematic because often injections are performed by
inexperienced technicians or orderlies. If a member of the execution team injects the drugs into a
muscle instead of a vein, or if the needle becomes clogged, extreme pain can result. Many
prisoners have damaged veins resulting from intravenous drug use and it is sometimes difficult to
find a usable vein, resulting in long delays while the inmate remains strapped to the gurney.
(Ecenbarger, 1994 and Weisberg, 1991)
Electrocution
Seeking a more humane method of execution than hanging, New York built the first
electric chair in 1888 and executed William Kemmler in 1890. Soon, other states adopted this
execution method. Today, electrocution is not used as the sole method of execution in any state.
Electrocution was the sole method in Nebraska until the State Supreme Court ruled the method
unconstitutional in February 2008. For execution by the electric chair, the person is usually
shaved and strapped to a chair with belts that cross his chest, groin, legs, and arms. A metal
skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with
saline. The sponge must not be too wet or the saline short-circuits the electric current, and not
too dry, as it would then have a very high resistance. An additional electrode is moistened with
conductive jelly (Electro-Creme) and attached to a portion of the prisoner's leg that has been
shaved to reduce resistance to electricity. The prisoner is then blindfolded. (Hillman, 1992 and
Weisberg, 1991) ...the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The
prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its
temperature rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking.
Sometimes the prisoner catches fire....Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon
frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber. (Ecenbarger, 1994)
Gas Chamber
In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was introduced as Nevada sought a more humane way of
executing its inmates. Gee Jon was the first person executed by lethal gas. The state tried to
pump cyanide gas into Jon's cell while he slept. This proved impossible because the gas leaked
from his cell, so the gas chamber was constructed. (Bohm, 1999) Today, five states authorize
lethal gas as a method of execution, but all have lethal injection as an alternative method. A
federal court in California found this method to be cruel and unusual punishment. For execution
by this method, the condemned person is strapped to a chair in an airtight chamber. Below the
chair rests a pail of sulfuric acid. A long stethoscope is typically affixed to the inmate so that a
doctor outside the chamber can pronounce death. Once everyone has left the chamber, the room
is sealed. The warden then gives a signal to the executioner who flicks a lever that releases
crystals of sodium cyanide into the pail. This causes a chemical reaction that releases hydrogen
cyanide gas. (Weisberg, 1991) The prisoner is instructed to breathe deeply to speed up the
process. Most prisoners, however, try to hold their breath, and some struggle. The inmate does
not lose consciousness immediately. According to former San Quenton, California, Penitentiary
warden, Clifton Duffy, "At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The
eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool." (Weisberg, 1991) Caryl
As of April 17, 2015, Oklahoma introduced death by nitrogen gas as an alternative to
lethal injection if the necessary drugs cannot be found or if that method is found unconstitutional.
Nitrogen is a naturally occurring gas in the atmosphere, and death would be caused by forcing
the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, thereby depriving him or her of oxygen.
Firing Squad
On March 23, 2015, firing squad was reauthorized in Utah as a viable method of
execution if, and only if the state was unable to obtain the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal
injection execution. Prior to this reauthorization, firing squad was only a method of execution in
Utah if chosen by an inmate before lethal injection became the sole means of execution. The
most recent execution by this method was that of Ronnie Gardner. By his own choosing, Gardner
was executed by firing squad in Utah on June 17, 2010. For execution by this method, the inmate
is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an ovalshaped canvas wall. The chair is surrounded by sandbags to absorb the inmate's blood. A black
hood is pulled over the inmate's head. A doctor locates the inmate's heart with a stethoscope and
pins a circular white cloth target over it. Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are
armed with .30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. One of the shooters is given blank
rounds. Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the inmate.
(Weisberg, 1991) The prisoner dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or a
large blood vessel, or tearing of the lungs. The person shot loses consciousness when shock
causes a fall in the supply of blood to the brain. If the shooters miss the heart, by accident or
intention, the prisoner bleeds to death slowly. (Hillman, 1992 and Weisberg, 1991)
Hanging
Until the 1890s, hanging was the primary method of execution used in the United States.
Hanging is still used in Delaware and Washington, although both have lethal injection as an
alternative method of execution. For execution by this method, the inmate may be weighed the
day before the execution, and a rehearsal is done using a sandbag of the same weight as the
prisoner. This is to determine the length of 'drop' necessary to ensure a quick death. If the rope is
too long, the inmate could be decapitated, and if it is too short, the strangulation could take as
long as 45 minutes. The rope, which should be 3/4-inch to 1 1/4-inch in diameter, must be boiled
and stretched to eliminate spring or coiling. The knot should be lubricated with wax or soap "to
ensure a smooth sliding action," according to the 1969 U.S. Army manual. (The Corrections
Professional, 1996 and Hillman, 1992)