Methods Of Capital Punishment Essay, Research Paper

Methods of Capital Punishment

In the United States out of fifty states, thirty-eight of them have some type of death penalty. Out of the thirty-eight states that have a death penalty there are five different ways of execution used. Also the number of people sentenced to the death penalty and the number inmates that have been executed have increased quickly in the 1990’s to the present day.

The thirty-eight states that have the death penalty use five ways of execution, lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, firing squad, and hanging. The most used method of execution is lethal injection, it is considered to be the most humane way and is the only way most states use. Lethal injection uses the following drugs, Sodium Pentothal which renders the inmate unconscious and shuts down the respiratory and cardiac; toxic amounts but not lethal. They next use a Sodium Chloride wash to clean the sodium pentothal out of the IV line. The next drug given is Pancuronium Bromide “Pavulon” this smoothes the muscle paralytic. The lines are washed out again. Then the final drug is administered which is Potassium Chloride, which shuts the heart down. In the method of Electrocution a stout salt solution and disc of copper, a solid copper concave device which is three inches in diameter which is soldered to the top of the head piece, attached is a wet sponge. Head piece and chair are built by inmates or DC. Lethal gas the inmate is restrained in a seat in a sealed steal chamber. Upon signal, the executioner opens a valve. Hydrochloric acid flows into pan. On a second signal, about 8 ounces of potassium cyanide crystals or tablets are mechanically dropped into the acid, which produces a Hydrocyanic gas. Death occurs in about 6-8 minutes. There is no reported protocol or procedure for the Firing Squad. The squad involves a five-man team, one of which uses a blank bullet so that none of them know who was the real executioner. In the method of Hanging the inmate is weighed prior to execution. The “drop” is based on the prisoners weight to deliver 1260 foot-pounds of force to the neck. Essentially, the prisoners weight divided by 1260 to arrive at a drop feet. This is to assure almost instant death, a minimum of bruising, and neither strangulation nor beheading. Properly done, death is by dislocation of the third or fourth cervical vertibrae. The familiar noose coil is placed behind the prisoners left ear, so as to snap the neck upon dropping.

The number of people that have been sentenced to death in recent years has grown dramatically. At the year-end of 1999 37 States and Federal prison system held 3,527 prisoners under the sentence of death, two percent more than in year-end of 1998. All of those sentenced to death, committed murder. The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, in the year 1976. Since 1976 to June 15, 1997 there has been 394 inmates executed. Lethal injection being the most used method, followed by electrocution. See Appendix B. Out of the states that have the death penalty 32 of the states use lethal injection, 11 of the states use electrocution, 6 use lethal gas, 3 use hanging, and 3 use the firing squad as an option of execution. See Appendix A.

In 1999 the number of inmates executed was 98 for the year. This number is more than any year since the early 1950’s. In 1999 the 98 people were executed in the following states; 35 in Texas, 14 in Virginia, 9 in Missouri, 7 in Arizona, 6 in Oklahoma, 6 in each Arkansas and North Carolina and South Carolina, 2 in each Alabama, California, and Delaware, and 1 in each in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Utah. All of those who were executed in 1999 were men. Different methods of Capital punishment have been used since the early 1900’s to try to deter crime. The most used method of execution to present day is Lethal injection.