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Capital punishment is defined as the legal infliction of the death penalty. Today in modern law, the death penalty is corporal punishment in its most severe form (Guilmette 1). The death penalty has been around since the earliest written historical records. The Bible called for the death penalty for over thirty different crimes ranging from theft to murder. Capital punishment is meant to deter crime and punish those who commit truly Heinous crimes. Although capital punishment is not to inflict physical pain, execution is the only punishment applied to adults (1).
Capital punishment is the most effective way of deterring crimes and the most severe punishment for heinous crimes such as rape and murder. Capital punishment has always been a preferred form of punishment for heinous crimes. The earliest historical written records contain evidence of capital punishment (1). It is not known exactly when the first use of capital punishment was but it became a popular means of punishment in England during the reign of King Canute. In both the present and past the decision on whether or not to sentence criminals to death have been fought by some sort of an anti-death groups.
During the 17 th century in the American colonies before the Revolution, the death penalty was commonly used for serious crimes. The American colonies stopped using this form of punishment during the 18 th century due to the reforms led by the Quakers. This reform only lasted about a hundred years, and around the beginning of the 19 th century the colonies started this practice, but limited the crimes to which the death penalty applied. One of the most controversial court decisions in modern times was that of Furman -v- Georgia. In 1972 U.
S. Supreme Court ruled that the 39 states that used the death penalty violated the 8 th and 14 th amendments. In 1976 the Supreme Court rejected to uphold the ban on capital punishment saying that as long as the jury uses discretion in imposing the death penalty is controlled by clear and objective standards so as to produce nondiscriminatory application (Draper 1). Just three years after this decision Florida carried out the sentence of death by electrocution for John Spenkelinl, this would be the first execution since 1967 in which prisoner was put to death against his will. Through out the years there have been numerous versions of the death penalty.
Some of the most cruel ways have been are crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering, impalement, beheading, burning alive, crushing, tearing, stoning, and drowning (Guilmette 1). In the more recent years punishments like these would be considered cruel and unusual punishment. The United States death penalty policy currently allows only 5 types of executions: hanging, electrocution, the gas chamber, firing squad, or lethal injection (Bender 34). The lethal injection has been the preferred method of execution ever since its invention. In 1977, Oklahoma was the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution (Trouble 73).
This system of execution is considered to be the humane way of inflicting the death penalty. This process takes usually only several minuets. First the condemned prisoner would be laid on a table in the middle of a white room. The only thing in the room is the table, the lethal injection machine, and the administrator. There are usually 12 witnesses, including press. The witness sits in side one of three rooms that contain two-tiered bleaches in front of a one way mirror.
When it is time for the inmate to have his sentence carried out he will have an IV placed in his arm. The machine will let three lethal drugs into the inmate s body. The first drug is sodium pentothal, about thirty seconds after the first drug is introduced in to the body the second drug, pancuronium, and together these will cause the inmates body go numb and can cause slight brain damage. The third and final drug, potassium chloride, is injected one minute after the completion of the first two drugs. This is the most lethal drug and kills the inmate within minutes. After the administer signals that the patient is dead the blinds in the witness room are then closed and the deceased inmate is then taken to the morgue for a family to claim the body (148 - 158) The electric chair is the second most commonly used means of execution.
In 1947 when an eighteen-year-old black man was executed was the first time the execution went off without a hitch. Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. is the chief engineer of the most current electric chair. He did not start from scratch when he designed his model, but instead improved the older versions.
The first improvement Leuchter added were three more electrodes, one is placed in a leather helmet and the other two are strapped to the angles. He then figured out that the average man needed 2, 640 volts ac to complete the execution. The whole process takes only about 4. 16 milliseconds; this is twenty-four times as fast as the nervous system can record pain (trouble 34). This may not be the most humane way to carry out the death penalty, but is usually very efficient. Only seven states still have the gas chamber in use as a means for capital punishment. These states include Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, and North Carolina (Blake 44).
Even though the gas chamber hasn t been used since 1992 it has been one of the most used methods of the death penalty since its creation (12). D. A. Turner, a major in the U. S. Army Medical Corps, invented the gas chamber in 1924.
The lethal gas used has gone by a variety of names, including pru prussic acid; candid gas, hydrogen cyanide, or hydrocyanic gas (Baird 12). Most gas chambers are octagonal in shape and are made of steel, with glass panels held in place with by airtight panels. The condemned man is strapped into a metal chair with a perforated seat. A stethoscope is taped to his chest and passed through the chamber so that a physician on the other side can pronounce death. Under the chair a bowl is placed, and over this suspended on a hook, which the executioner controls by means of a lever, is a gauze bag containing one pound of cyanide. When the time is right the executioner will introduce sulfuric acid into the bowl and drop the cyanide in.
Once the chemical reaction starts the chamber will fill with a deadly gas. The lethal gas will first paralyze the heart and lungs. Then severe headaches will begin to set in, followed by chest pains. Respiration becomes impossible.
The inmate s eyes will begin to pop out and the tongue will hang thick and drooling from the mouth. Just before the inmate is pronounced dead his face will turn completely purple (13). There are allot of benefits that come from using capital punishment. Two examples of benefits would be how it discourages crime and would help to safe guard society. There have been documented records kept for the years between 1967 - 1984. 2 of the decline of 50 murders for each prisoner executed (Dunhew 1). By executing a murder it will never allow him to go out and harm another person and in return it would help to safe guard society.
If a person knows that the penalty for killing someone would be death he would more likely reconsider it. To outlaw the death penalty would be probably one of the biggest mistakes the government could ever make. Through out history the use of capital punishment has shown to be an effective way of deterring future crimes. Critics of the death penalty say that the whole system is useless and dose nothing positive for society. For a person to make a statement like that they would be completely wrong, true there are some problems with the current policy but there problems with almost every law in use today. During the years that the death penalty was outlawed statistics showed that the murder rate greatly increased (Dunhew 1).
The bible best sums it up in Genesis 9: 6 Whoever sheds man s blood, by man his blood will be shed. 32 b
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