Capital Punishment

The U.S. Supreme Court's restoration of the death penalty in 1976 sparked a continuing national debate on whether capital punishment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Many will agree that capital punishment, the execution of criminals by state, deters murder with just retribution. Capital punishment, which is favored by the overwhelming majority of United States citizens, is an expression of the will of the majority in a democratic society. The death penalty discourages murder by putting the fear of death into criminals. Capital punishment is therefore not a cruel and unusual punishment but a symbol of public authority. Then in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court seemingly outlawed the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia. In 1976, the Court reversed itself in Gregg v. Georgia, on the grounds that legislative responses to Furman had indicated a strong public support for death sentences in murder cases. This was evidenced by the fact that after Furman, 28 states had written new capital statutes, and by 1976, that number had grown to 35, with more than 460 persons sentenced to death.

In any society, "punishment is rooted in the idea of conduct that is considered improper by the community as a whole or those to whom its power is delegated" (Harding & Ireland 94). The punishment is, therefore, a reflection of how the community conceives of the crime and how it perceives its own responsibility to respond, as a community, to that crime. The death penalty is the lawful killing of a human being after a trial by peers. So by definition the death penalty is not murder, but justice. For society to function in a meaningful way and its citizenry to feel safe and secure, individuals must be confident that criminals will be apprehended and dealt with in a fashion proportionate to their crimes.

To understand the death penalty and everything it deals with, one must understand the background of it. There are two very important Supreme Court cases dealing with capital punishment; the first in 1972 with the Furman vs. Georgia case, and the second in 1976 with the Gregg vs. Georgia case.

Early in the year of 1972, a resident of a private residential house came home while Furman was breaking into it. While trying to escape Furman tripped and fell and his gun fired accidentally. One of the residents of the home was shot and killed. Furman was tried for murder and was found guilty and sentenced to death. Later in 1972, in his Supreme Court case of Furman vs. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that under then existing laws, "the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty . . . constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments." In over two hundred pages of concurrence and dissents, the justices articulated their views on this controversial subject. Only Justices Brennan and Marshall believed the death penalty to be unconstitutional in all instances. Along with Gregg, the Supreme Court effectively voided 40 death penalty statutes.

Four years later, a jury found Gregg guilty of armed robbery and murder and sentenced him to death. On appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence except as to its imposition for the robbery conviction. Gregg challenged his remaining death sentence for murder, claiming that his capital sentence was a "cruel and unusual" punishment that violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. In this case, the Supreme Court shifted in the opposite direction, and ruled that "the punishment of death does not invariably violate the Constitution." The Court ruled that these new statutes contained "objective standards to guide, regularize, and make rationally reviewable the process of imposing the sentence of death." In extreme criminal cases, such as when a defendant has been convicted of deliberately killing another, the careful and judicious use of the death penalty may be appropriate if carefully employed. Georgia's death penalty statute assures the judicious and careful use of the death penalty by requiring a bifurcated proceeding where the trial and sentencing are conducted separately, specific jury findings as to the severity of the crime and the nature of the defendant, and a comparison of each capital sentence's circumstances with other similar cases. The death penalty was reinstated.

The most humane and popular method of executing someone is lethal injection, which has been used 829 times. Used by 36 states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming, plus the us military and the us government. 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 are then inserted, one as a back-up, into usable veins, usually in the inmate's arms. The first solution injected 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)

Another method of execution, not as popular as lethal injection, is the electric chair. Electrocution, used 152 times, is used by 10 states including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. All of these States except Nebraska have lethal injection as an alternative. For execution by the electric chair, the person is usually shaved, blindfolded, 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. An additional electrode is moistened with conductive jelly and attached to a portion of the prisoner's leg that has been shaved to reduce resistance to electricity. After the execution team has withdrawn to the observation room, the warden signals the executioner, who pulls a handle to connect the power supply. A jolt of about 2000 volts, which lasts for about 30 seconds, is given. The doctors wait a few seconds for the body to cool down and then check to see if the inmate's