The Death Penalty/ Capitol Punishment

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THE DEATH PENALTY/ CAPITOL PUNISHMENT

‘Capital punishment’ which is otherwise known as the ‘death penalty’ refers to the execution of an individual or group of people sentenced to death after being convicted by a court of law or criminal offense (Wallis 49). Capital punishment is not associated with extrajudicial executions that do not follow the law process. Sometimes capital punishment is not followed by execution as some offenders end up spending the rest of their lives in prison.

The aspect of criminal punishment has brought about a lot of controversy from debates, rulings, opinionated comments from not only in the United States but all over the world. This has posed humanitarian questions in various states around the country and if the death penalty will cease to be legal in all states around the U.S or not remains to be seen. A few states that have done away with the death penalty include Iowa, Minnesota, Alaska, Hawaii and Vermont. Michigan, Wisconsin and Maine are some of the states that abolished the death penalty as early as the mid-18th century.

Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New York, New Mexico and New Jersey are some of the states that have recently abolished the death penalty including Nebraska which abolished the death penalty on the May of this year 2015 (Bosman par 21). Other states such as Ohio, Oregon, Kansas, California and Alabama still apply the death penalty.

Since the year 1700, 15,746 people have been executed in the United States according to Wilson, C. 65 people have been executed by burning. 130 people have been executed by a firing squad. 9,183 people have been executed by hanging. 593 people have been executed by lethal gas. 4,439 people have been executed by electrocution. 1,234 people have been executed by lethal injection and 102 by other means that were not specified. A period spanning 10 years from 1967 saw a supreme court ruling halt all executions in the United States but were resumed in 1977.

Since the ruling to the 15th of July following an execution in Missouri there have been a total of 1,412 executions in the United States. The Southern region of the country has seen the most executions with a number of 1,147 executions followed by the Midwest with 176 executions. The Western region has seen 85 executions with the Northeast seeing the least number of executions; a mere 4.

The state of Texas has seen the most executions in the country with a number totaling to 527 executions, followed by the state of Oklahoma with 112 executions and Virginia with 110 executions. The states of Utah, Tennessee, Maryland, Washington, Nebraska, Montana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Idaho, South Dakota, Oregon, Connecticut, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming register executions not exceeding the number of 10.  

Methods of Execution authorized in the United States

According to foxnews.com, currently five execution methods are legal in various states in the United States but all states that have death row inmates use lethal injection as their primary mode of execution. States have changed modes of execution over the years in ongoing attempts so as to prevent litigation.

1. Lethal Injection

Lethal injection was first adopted in Oklahoma and became the primary mode of execution by all states that carry out the death penalty. Inmates are strapped to a gurney while needles are inserted into their veins and the drugs siphoned in. This mode of execution is considered least barbaric because the inmates are sedated before the drugs are administered into their body.

Before 2009, states used a three drug system whereby the offender would have administered into him first a sedative, proceeded by a neuromuscular drug to paralyze his body and finally a fatal drug to stop the heart from beating. Due to drug shortages and legal challenges that argued that paralytic drugs could hide the suffering of an inmate, states are now trying out other systems.

1. Electrocution

 New York developed electrocution as an alternative to death by hanging which was considered rather inhumane. The first execution by electrocution was conducted in 1890. Prisoners are strapped into an electric chair and electrodes are placed on their heads and legs. Saline soaked sponges are placed between the skin and electrodes to assist in conduction of electricity.

The voltage and the number of volts applied and the length of time taken to apply the electricity vary from state to state. Executions give at least two jolts of electricity to ensure that the inmate is dead and they cannot give one continuous jolt before the person’s body burns so the executioner gives the body time cool down in between jolts.

1. Gas Chamber

The gas chamber developed in the 1920s as a more humane method of execution but it experienced horrific problems from the start. The first idea was to pump the gas into an inmate’s cell while he was asleep but they had no way to keep the gas contained and hence the chamber was built. Inmates are strapped into a chair then the chamber gets filled with cyanide gas that kills the inmate by asphyxiation.

1. Firing Squad

This mode of execution was used as recently as 2010 in Utah at the request of a convicted man there. The inmate is strapped into a chair and a cloth target is placed over the prisoner’s heart. Several shooters are given bullets while some are given blanks and they aim at the heart so as to rapture it and the inmate dies instantly.

1. Hanging

Before 1890, hanging was the primary method of execution in the United States. The prisoner stands over a trap door while a noose is placed around the inmate’s neck and then the trap door is opened and the prisoner falls through. By design, the intention of the fall is to break the inmate’s neck but that has not always been the case. In some situations, prisoners have been decapitated from the fall while some have strangled over the course of several minutes.

Executions do not always go according to plan and some end with undesired results such as the offender not dying in the set time or the execution method backfires and the offender dies experiencing immense pain of which is usually undesired or dying in a manner considered inhumane. This is what is referred to as botched executions.

History of botched executions in the U.S

This is a brief history of some and not all botched executions that have happened in the United States according to mirror.co.uk from when the death penalty was reintroduced by a Supreme Court ruling in 1977.