Essay on The Controversy of Capital Punishment.

The victim was strapped to a table with a pot of rats upended on his stomach. Then a fire was lit atop the cauldron. The rats had no choice but to burrow into the condemned’s stomach.

There are five ways to execute a person. The five are: lethal gas, lethal injection, electrocution, hanging, and firing squad. The most commonly used are lethal injection and electrocution. Lethal injection is when the people inject a shot into both of your arms. It takes about three minutes until the acid kills you. Firing squad is when a group of people has guns and the shoot at the murderers

Why is the death penalty used as a means of punishment for crime? Is this just a way to solve the nations growing problem of overcrowded prisons, or is justice really being served? Why do some view the taking of a life morally correct? These questions are discussed and debated upon in every state and national legislature throughout the country. Advantages and disadvantages for the death penalty exist, and many members of the United States, and individual State governments, have differing opinions. Yet it seems that the stronger arguments, and evidence such as cost effectiveness, should lead the common citizen to the opposition of Capital Punishment.

The execution style of the electric chair was first used on convicted murderer William Francis Kemmler on August 6th, 1890. The use of electricity is a more modern style of execution. The idea of using electricity to end someone's life was invented to seek a more “humane” method rather than lynching people. Once Kemmler was executed in New York, other states at the time rapidly adopted this new style of execution. It was used up until 2008 by Nebraska until the Supreme Court ruled that the use of the electric chair was “unconstitutional.” For execution using the electric chair, the criminal is usually shaved and placed in a chair with belts that cross his/her chest, groin, legs, and arms. Then, a metal cap shaped like a skull, electrode is attached to the head and a sponge moistened with saline. However, the sponge cannot be too wet or the saline short-circuits the electric current, and cannot be too dry, because then it would have a high resistance. Next, an additional electrode is moistened with electro-creme (conductive jelly) and is then attached to the victim’s leg that was shaved to reduce the resistance of electricity. The prisoner is then blindfolded. A perfect example of how the electric chair works is depicted in The Green Mile. Although it does succeed in killing the criminal, the use of electricity is considered inhumane and the victim takes a while to die. While using the electric chair may not be the best way of executing a criminal, in case of a state or government not being able to obtain lethal injection, the electric chair could be brought back again for

In the United States, the use of the death penalty continues to be a controversial issue. Every election year, politicians, wishing to appeal to the moral sentiments of voters, routinely compete with each other as to who will be toughest in extending the death penalty to those persons who have been convicted of first-degree murder. Both proponents and opponents of capital punishment present compelling arguments to support their claims. Often their arguments are made on different interpretations of what is moral in a just society. In this essay, I intend to present major arguments of those who support the death penalty and those who are opposed to state sanctioned executions application . However, I do intend to fairly and accurately

Furthermore, in the 1830s and 1840s capital punishment was targeted nationwide (Henderson, 9). The movement against the death penalty sought to “halt public executions” (Henderson, 9). Public executions at the time were widely attended and seen as a form of entertainment (Henderson, 9). The most popular form of execution at this time (and still today in some countries) was hanging (Beliveau, 202). Although this type of execution was common when carrying out the death sentence, it was not always the most humane. Beliveau claims that “contrary to what is often believed, in the majority of cases it is not the blocking of air entering the lungs that causes death” (202). In addition, the most common types of hanging were short-drop hanging and long-drop hanging (Beliveau, 203-4). Short-drop hanging was the more common of the two and had similar effects to dying by strangulation whereas long-drop hanging was created with the intent of executing someone in a more humane way (Beliveau, 203-4). Other methods of capital punishment include decapitation, lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, hanging, firing squad (Denver et al).

The United State has long history of death penalty, United State 's use of the death penalty over the past four centuries. In August 1890, American was walking up to the power of twentieth- century technology, to the first light bulbs, automobiles, photographic, telephones. In the basement of Auburn State Penitentiary in upstate New York, a man named William Kemmler is bound to a chair with heavy leather stripes. Kemmler who had been convicted of murdering his Lovers, Matilda Ziegler, with and axe, his execution was the first execution by electrocution in history.

After the Governor and Attorney General provide the okay, the inmate is escorted to the death chamber where they are strapped to the gurney in roughly 30 seconds. Often the inmate will thank the tie down team, which has been said to leave the executioner with a “weird feeling.” Some inmates are calm, while others cry or appear to be physically anxious. For those who are anxious it has been said that their legs will often

“The question with which we must deal with is not whether a substantial proportion of American citizens would today, if polled, opine that capital punishment is barbarously cruel, but whether they would find it to be so in light of all information presently available.” -U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

Does taking another’s life actually avenge that of another? The disciplinary act of capital punishment, punishment through death, has been a major debate in the United States for years. Those in support of capital punishment believe that it is an end to the reoccurrence of a repeat murderer. The public has, for many years, been in favor of this few and pro-death penalty. Yet as time goes on, records show a decrease in the public and the state’s support of the continuation of capital punishment. Those against capital punishment believe it is an immoral, spends taxpayers’ money improperly, and does not enforce a way to rehabilitate criminals and/or warn off future crimes.

In America, there have been five different execution methods used. These five methods consist of

Should one person have the right to end another human's life? It is a question most people have the answer for when it comes to capital punishment. Capital punishment is known to some people one of the cruelest punishment to humanity. Some people believe giving a person the death penalty doe's not solve anything. While other's believe it is payback to the criminal for the crime they have committed. There have been 13,000 people executed since the colonial times, among 1900 and 1985 there were 139 innocent people sentence to death only 23 were executed. In 1967 lack of support and legal challenges cut the execution rate to zero bringing the practice to a complete end by 1972. Although the supreme court authorized its resumption in 1976

The death penalty has been around before the birth of the United States Constitution. The death penalty is a very conversational topic and is a deterrent of the worst criminal acts (murder, rape, and terrorism). Support for the death penalty has gone down in recent years from 1994 to 2014 support of for the death penalty dropped 20%. Kenneth Williams blames these key factors innocence, race, arbitrariness, incompetent lawyers, etc… ).

For the past decades, capital punishment has been one of the most contested political issues in America. Capital punishment is not merely or even primarily a

Capital punishment has always been an intense debate in the United States. It’s been questioned whether the death penalty is unconstitutional. It’s being portrayed as “cruel and unusual punishment” which violates The Eight Amendment rights in the United States Constitution. It is cruel in the way it lets people know that if you commit murder than you may be murdered also by the government.