Capital punishment in almost all states has been a highly disputed topic for some time now. There are many people for and against capital punishment. According to Larry J. Siegel, capital punishment is defined as, “the execution of criminal offenders; the death penalty” (7). Hundreds of people wait on death row every day and many states have opposed the death penalty. But, 32 states still have the death penalty such as California, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. People in the criminal justice system have mixed views for capital punishment. A big argument opposing the death penalty is that it’s a cruel and unusual punishment which is prohibited by the 8th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Killing a human is not humane, even if the …show more content…
The drug used for lethal injection is called sodium pentathol that is administered during the first stage of lethal injection and effectively wears off before the second and third drugs are delivered into the body. The offender could feel unbearable pain which is made worse since the numbing effect of the second drug would grip up the vocal cords and make it impossible for the prisoner to express excruciating pain to the prison staff. In 2006, the state of Missouri halted all executions for the fear of causing an unacceptable amount of pain. Wrongful convictions are not prevalent but can still happen from time to time. In Missouri a wrongful conviction lead to the following, “Illinois' former governor, George Ryan, halted all executions in 2000 after 13 people were found innocent of the convictions that landed them on death row. Assuming an imperfect judicial system still with major instances of systemic discrimination, there is always the chance that individuals will be wrongfully condemned to death. Governor Ryan granted clemency to over 160 death row inmates before leaving office in 2003” (Death Penalty Statistics 1). The United States may be putting more innocent people to death than previously thought. The rate of wrongful death sentences in the U.S. is much higher than experts estimated. According to David Von Drehle, “Authors of the study say that their “conservative estimate of the proportion of erroneous convictions” is 4.1 percent, or approximately twice the number actually exonerated and set free from death row. This could mean that approximately 120 of the roughly 3,000 inmates on death row in America might not be guilty” (1). False convictions are very tough to prevent after the fact. So many innocent defendants remain undetected. In the case of capital punishment, victims of wrongful convictions pay the