Lethal Injection Research Paper

For years people have been sentenced to death for serious crimes, and up until thirty years ago the main way to execute them in the United States was the electric chair. Nowadays, the majority of states with the death penalty have gone away from the electric chair and towards what some consider more humane, the lethal injection. The question is; is this truly a more constitutional or humane way of executing a criminal? The idea of sentencing and then putting an individual to death is not a pleasant one, prompting many governments including the United States to adopt what some believe is a more humane method, the lethal injection. The most common method involves a combination of three drugs, an anesthetic, a paralytic agent and another that

Some people believe that lethal injection as a way of execution should be non - constitutional, according to one website; "prohibited by the eighth amendment to the U.S. Constitution" (info base learning). Meaning that this is not allowed by the constitution. While those for lethal injection claim that if administered correctly, the procedure is quick and painless, opponents have argued that the use of non-medically trained personnel results in unnecessary pain for the executed and that one of the drugs used is so painful, that even veterinarians do not use it on animals. Justice Stevens even stated that “your procedure would be prohibited if applied to cats and dogs” (Fabio; the case against lethal injection). Others have even argued that the three-drug method is not full proof and should the criminal wake up during the third phase, they would have no way of saying they were in pain, because the second stage drug had paralyzed them. On the other hand, officials at the state corrections facilities say that lethal injection does work and that it is less painful and that many facilities use ten times the amount of sedative used during a normal surgery thereby essentially eliminating the risk that an inmate will wake during the

This is causing states to violate federal laws by attempting to obtain the drugs from illegal overseas sources. Furthermore, if this avenue has not worked, they are attempting to kill an inmate with a combination of drugs that have never been used before. Although death is supposed to occur within seven minutes after the legal injection, in 2013 medical experts stated that; "the new methods of lethal injections could cause inmates to seize, vomit, spasm, or suffocate in deaths that could go on for hours" (Redden). "In July of 2014, Joseph Rudolph Wood III suffered through the longest execution in US history when the lethal drugs began to pump through his system at 1:57 p.m. and death did not occur until 3:49 p.m." (Crair) and his was the fourth problematic execution in a year that would go down as the worst in US history. Recent executions where the drug midazolam was used have seen an increased rise in pain and suffering as well as in some cases prolonged time to death. Imagine being the person lying on that gurney, in pain most likely slowly suffocating, but not being able to tell anyone because your body is paralyzed from the second stage