The Pros And Cons Of Abolishing The Death Penalty

Despite many debates about the effectiveness, economic sensibility and fairness of the death penalty, thirty-one states have it while most of the western world has abolished capital. Both Mexico and Canada abolished the death penalty in 2005 and 1976 respectively. Furthermore, the United States was the only country in the Americas to execute a prisoner in 2013. Stating that “the death penalty is cruel and inhuman, and has not been shown in any way to act as a deterrent to crime,” the EU requires the abolition of it as a prerequisite for membership. In fact, the vast majority of other countries that still utilize capital punishment are authoritarian regimes with little regard for human rights (Robins-Early 2014). However, the United States Federal

The death penalty comes into direct conflict with article 8 of the bill of rights, “nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (“Bill of Rights,” n.d.). Both Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg agree that the death penalty is unconstitutional as it is cruel and unusual due to it being arbitrary, unreliable and rare (Baude 2015). Botched executions contribute to the death penalty being cruel and unusual. Since 1900, there have been 273 botched executions and 7.3% of executions done by legal injection fail. Many states use a three-drug cocktail in order to execute prisoners, with the first being an anesthetic, the second being a paralytic, and the third being a heart stop drug. If the first drug wears off, which is not entirely unlikely, the prisoner will experience extreme searing pain and suffer greatly as they die. For example, in an Arizona case an inmate gasped for two hours before a coroner pronounced them dead and in an Oklahoma case, an inmate woke up during the execution and incurred great suffering while he died. In a 2015 case, Justice Kagan stated that if an anesthetic failed to take effect “the inmate would feel as if he were being burned alive.” The feeling of being burned alive would easily constitute both cruel and unusual punishment. Justice Breyer also argued he was almost certain that the courts had executed innocent people. Since 1973, 173 deathrow inmates have been exonerated showing the imperfect nature of the criminal justice system, which is bound to make errors in conviction. Death is permanent; an inmate cannot be released post-mortem. If the death penalty continues, it will certainly lead to the deaths of innocent people and therefore, can not be considered morally upright. When a punishment given out by the justice system violates the Bill of Rights, a cornerstone of American life, and is inarguably immoral, it has no place in our