Necessary Punishment
OR
State Sanctioned Murder
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It creates another form of crime deterrent.
Crime would run rampant as never before if
there wasn't some way to deter people from
committing the acts. Prison time is an effective
deterrent, but with some people, more is
needed. Prosecutors should have the option of
using a variety of punishments in order to
minimize crime.
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DNA testing and other methods of modern crime scene
science can now effectively eliminate almost all
uncertainty as to a person's guilt or innocence. One of the
biggest arguments against the death penalty is the
possibility of error. Sure, we can never completely eliminate
all uncertainty, but nowadays, it's about as close as you can
get. DNA testing is over 99 percent effective. And even if
DNA testing and other such scientific methods didn't exist,
the trial and appeals process is so thorough it's next to
impossible to convict an innocent person. Remember, a jury
of 12 members must unanimously decide there's not even a
reasonable doubt the person is guilty. The number of
innocent people that might somehow be convicted is no
greater than the number of innocent victims of the
murderers who are set free.
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Prisoner parole or escapes can give criminals
another chance to kill. Perhaps the biggest
reason to keep the death penalty is to prevent
the crime from happening again. The parole
system nowadays is a joke. Does it make sense
to anyone outside the legal system to have
multiple "life" sentences + 20 years or other
jiverish? Even if a criminal is sentenced to life
without possibility of parole, he still has a
chance to kill while in prison, or even worse,
escape and go on a crime/murder spree.
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It contributes to the problem of
overpopulation in the prison system. Prisons
across the country face the problem of too
many prisoners and not enough space &
resources. Each additional prisoner requires a
portion of a cell, food, clothing, extra guard
time, and so on. When you eliminate the death
penalty as an option, it means that prisoner
must be housed for life. Thus, it only adds to
the problem of an overcrowded prison system.
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Financial costs to taxpayers of capital punishment
is several times that of keeping someone in
prison for life. Most people don't realize that
carrying out one death sentence costs 2-5 times
more than keeping that same criminal in prison for
the rest of his life. How can this be? It has to do
with the endless appeals, additional required
procedures, and legal wrangling that drag the
process out. It's not unusual for a prisoner to be on
death row for 15-20 years. Judges, attorneys, court
reporters, clerks, and court facilities all require a
substantial investment by the taxpayers. Do we
really have the resources to waste?
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Life in prison is a worse punishment and a more
effective deterrent. For those of you who don't feel
much sympathy for a murderer, keep in mind that
death may be too good for them. With a death
sentence, the suffering is over in an instant. With
life in prison, the pain goes on for decades.
Prisoners are confined to a cage and live in an
internal environment of rape and violence where
they're treated as animals. And consider terrorists.
Do you think they'd rather suffer the humiliation
of lifelong prison or be "martyred" by a death
sentence?
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The possibility exists that innocent men and
women may be put to death. There are several
documented cases where DNA testing showed
that innocent people were put to death by the
government. We have an imperfect justice
system where poor defendants are given
minimal legal attention by often lesser
qualified individuals. Some would blame the
court system, not that death penalty itself for
the problems, but we can't risk mistakes.
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It is barbaric and violates the "cruel and unusual"
clause in the Bill of Rights. Whether it's a firing
squad, electric chair, gas chamber, lethal injection,
or hanging, it's barbaric to allow state-sanctioned
murder before a crowd of people. We condemn
people like Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong Il when
they murder their own people while we continue
to do the same (although our procedures for
allowing it are obviously more thorough). The 8th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prevents the
use of "cruel and unusual punishment". Many
would interpret the death penalty as violating this
restriction.
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95 countries do not allow the death penalty
58 countries allow for and use the death
penalty
35 countries allow for but do NOT use the
death penalty (last 10 years)
9 countries allow for the death penalty in
certain extreme cases only
There are 35 states in the USA with the death
penalty and 15 without
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The USA, Japan, and China are the only
developed nations that allow for death penalty
for normal law
Not counting China (doesn’t give data but
suspected to be in the 1 000s) there were 714
executions in 2009 – Iran (388), Iraq (120), Suadi
Arbai (69), USA (52), Yemen (30)
Since 1973, over 130 people have been released
from death row with evidence of their
innocence.
Stoning to Death
How It Works: The
prisoner is buried either up
to his waist (if male) or up
to her shoulders (if female)
and then pelted with stones
by a crowd of volunteers
until obviously battered to
death. Under the terms of
most fundamentalist
courts, the stones must be
small enough that death
cannot reasonably be
expected to result from
only one or two blows, but
large enough to cause
physical harm. The average
execution by stoning is
extremely painful, lasting
at least 10 to 20 minutes.
Death by Beheading
How It Works: The victim is
restrained, usually forced to
kneel, and the executioner
removes the head by way of a
sword or knife. In renaissanceera Europe (most famously in the
aftermath of the French
Revolution), the process was
automated by way of a device
called a guillotine, which
dropped a heavy blade through
the prisoner's neck--allowing for
a clean, instant decapitation.
Complications: Beheading can
actually be a fairly humane form
of punishment, provided that the
executioner is strong and
reasonably competent. When the
executioner is less strong or less
competent than would be
desirable, however, death can be
slow and excruciatingly painful
as it would take several tries to
remove the head.
Hanging
How It Works: The prisoner stands
on trapdoor, and a rope descends
from a wooden beam overhead.
The rope is fastened around the
prisoner's neck in a "Hangman's
noose," which tightens when pulled
upon. The executioner pulls a lever
opening the trapdoor and dropping
the prisoner, who ideally dies
quickly due to a broken neck.
Complications: The length of the
rope must be carefully calibrated in
proportion to the prisoner's weight.
If the rope is too short, insufficient
velocity is generated to break the
prisoner's neck and the prisoner is
painfully strangled to death. If the
rope is too long, excessive velocity
is generated and decapitation may
result. Even if the rope is of exactly
the right length, a prisoner with an
exceptionally large or strong neck
may suffer strangulation rather
than immediate death.
Firing Squad
How It Works: Firing squad
executions are so incredibly rare in
the United States that it is difficult
to speak of a standard operating
procedure, but historically the
victim is strapped to a chair, five
sharpshooters aim at the victim's
heart, and all five pull the trigger.
One of the sharpshooters is secretly
armed with a blank round, which
means that each shooter can rest
comfortably in the knowledge that
there is a 20% chance that she never
shot the prisoner.
Complications: Although both
modern firing squad executions
went smoothly, it was not unheard
of in the past for all five rounds to
penetrate the prisoner without
killing him--requiring a sixth
shooter to fire a round at close
range to put the prisoner out of his
misery.
Electric Chair
How It Works: The prisoner is
shaved, strapped to a chair, and fitted
with electrodes attached to conductive
sponges--one on the head, one on the
leg--creating a direct current. The
prisoner is then hooded. The
executioner pulls a switch, and 2,000
volts race through the prisoner's body
as the internal body temperature
approaches 140 degrees resulting in
brain death. A second lower surge
quickly follows that causes the heart
to misfire resulting in a heart attack.
If performed correctly, the procedure
is supposed to cause immediate
unconsciousness followed by nearinstantaneous death.
Complications: The procedure is
extremely gruesome to contemplate,
and can burn conscious prisoners
alive if performed incorrectly. Horrific
accounts of botched electrocutions
have essentially made the electric
chair a relic of the past, an option
selected by prisoners who fear lethal
injection or simply want a more
distinctive exit.
Gas Chamber
How It Works: The prisoner is
strapped to a chair inside a sealed
gas chamber. The executioner
(standing outside of the chamber)
pulls a lever dropping potassium
cyanide pellets into a vat of sulfuric
acid, flooding the chamber with
lethal hydrogen cyanide gas.
Complications: Death can be
extremely slow and painful, as
demonstrated in several highprofile executions from the 1980s
and 1990s. One of the more
infamous was that of Jimmy Lee
Gray in 1983, who frantically
gasped, moaned, and slammed his
head into a steel pipe for ten
minutes as the cyanide slowly took
effect. In 1996, the 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled that execution by
poison gas constitutes cruel and
unusual punishment.
Lethal Injection
How It Works: The executioner,
usually a person injecting the drugs
manually (lethal injection machines
are no longer in widespread use due
to the possibility of mechanical
failure), injects three drugs in
sequence:
5g Pentothol (sodium thiopental),
which is intended to induce a coma.
100mg Pavulon (pancuronium
bromide), which causes paralysis.
100 mEq potassium chloride, which
stops the heart.
Complications: Pentothol does not
always induce a coma, leaving the
disturbing possibility that at least
some prisoners killed by lethal
injection may experience extreme pain
due to the administration of
potassium chloride--without any
means of expressing that pain, thanks
to the paralysis brought about by the
Pavulon. For this reason, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in Hill v. Crosby
(2006) that death row prisoners may
challenge lethal injection procedures
under the Eighth Amendment.
There are NO appeals