Unit One (February 9, 2016)

Capital Punishment, Yes or No?

The argument is that the use of capital punishment is harsh and should be discontinued. Capital punishment or the death penalty is a sentencing for crimes that are considered heinous. It is legal in just over fifty percent of the states. This is due to the fact that execution is a reserved power. However, only a handful of the states that have kept it legal have actually used it in recent years. These states include Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma. This lack luster amount of participants is due to several reasons. First off it is widely considered immoral to kill others, the method of lethal injection has come into question, and many suppliers have stopped manufacturing the killer drugs.

            Lethal injection is directly against the Eighth Amendment which prohibits the use of cruel or unusual punishment. Recent studies have shown that the drugs used during lethal injection cause pain before death. Also while causing pain up to seven percent of execution by lethal injection have failed to work. This is causing a great loss of revenue in money spent on drugs that never take effect. It is considered to be just a cruel as killing in any other fashion. This a very large debate that very well may never truly come to an end. Some states and people are far to “loving” of the death penalty. This make it hard to bring up such counter arguments as the constitution. Also it has proven difficult to truly test whether it is painful or not to die by lethal injection. Due to the fact that most participants don get the chance to answer that question. Until these questions are answered the death penalty cannot be stopped based solely upon the constitution. However, a federal mandate or a referendum containing the majority rule against the use of capital punishment very well may stop its use in the near future.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/29/things-to-know-death-penalty-and-execution-drugs.html