Capital Punishment

Types of Executions

Lethal Injection: The prisoner gets strapped down to a bed and has two IV's put in him, in the next room three drugs are, most of the time, manually injected into the IV's. The three drugs, injected in this order, are sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride.
Gas Chamber: The gas chamber has been used as a method of executions for many years. Before the execution, a person will put potassium cyanide pellets into a small compartment under the chair, then the prisoner is brought in a secured to the chair and sealed in the room. Then the executioner will pour a good amount of concentrated sulfuric acid into tubes that lead to the room, after that the acid and the pellets are mixed generating lethal hydrogen cyanide.
The Electric Chair:The electric chair was invented by Harold P. Brown who was employed by Thomas Edison for the sole purpose of investigating the uses of electricity for execution. When being executed by the electric chair the prisoner is strapped in to the chair and a wet sponge is placed on their head to help the conductivity of the electrical current. Electrodes are placed on the prisoners head and feet to keep a closed current, then two currents of varying levels are sent through the prisoner. The first current is 2,000 volts and sent through for 15 seconds, and the second on is brought down by 8 amps. The current will cause major damage to internal organs and will cause the body to heat up to about 138 degrees.
Single Person Shooting: This is the most common way of executing in the world, it is used in over 70 countries. Each country has their own way of doing it, some shoot the person in the back of the head and neck and others are injected with a strong anesthetic before they are executed.
Firing Squad: The method of execution varies from country to country but most of the time the prisoner is blind folded and restrained, all of the shooters shoot at the chest, one of them has a blank so they do not feel the guilt, but no one really knows who has the blank.

Some people can say that the death penalty is racist and they might be right, but not that way some might think.Statistics show that in the past more white people where killed with the death penalty than blacks, but as of April 2012 the amount of blacks and whites killed due to the death penalty is just about equal. It is the Latino race that has the least people killed with the death penalty.

Others also feel that less women are executed than men, statistics show that from 1973 till 2011 women were only 6.4% or lower of the total executions in the United States.

If you are interested in the number of execution in the US in any given year visit this site.

Pros and Cons

PROS:

1. The justice system of the US shows more sympathy for the criminals rather the victims. The death penalty is good because it puts the emphasis on the victim rather the criminal.

2. What if a murderer escapes from prison what is there to stop that person from murdering another person, if they were put to death there is not chance of that happening.

3. The death penalty deters other people from killing because it shows that they have the chance of getting killed themselves.

4. The death penalty helps the victim’s family recover faster from the shock because they know that the person is gone for good and there is no chance of that person killing again rather than them still being around in prison.

5. It deters other inmates from killing while in prison. If there is no death penalty and they are in prison for life they can keep killing because they can’t extend the inmates sentence because they are already in prison for life so what does it matter, the death penalty will scare inmates into behaving in prison.

CONS:

1. The death penalty is “cruel and unusual” punishment and therefore unconstitutional under the 8^th amendment.

2. Life in prison is a worse punishment and maybe more effective. With the death penalty the suffering of a person in prison is over in a second, with life in prison the pain goes on for a life time.

3. There is a possibility that an innocent man or woman may be killed by the death penalty. There have been DNA tests to prove that an innocent person has been put to death.

4. Sometimes jury members do not convict a person if it means putting them to death. This means that the juror does not want to feel the guilt or have this on their chest because they put a person to death.

5. The death penalty sends the wrong message, it is saying we are killing you for killing a person, how does that say murder is wrong. The punishment for murder is murder that does not set a good example.

6. It has been proven that it costs more money to execute a person that to put them in prison for life.