The death penalty’s current law went into effect in 1981. This was shortly after the Furman v Georgia Supreme Court case, where they stated that, under the existing laws, “the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty...constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.” (Furman v Georgia, 408 U.S. 238) Although in July of 1976 the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty does not always violate the constitution, the death penalty still possesses three major downfalls. Capital punishment has a possibility of failing as seen in January 2014, when Dennis McGuire was faced with lethal injection. He reportedly gasped and struggled for breath during the twenty six minutes it took to pronounce