Death Penalty Cases

How would you feel, if you were convicted of a heinous crime, and you were about to be put to death? Worse yet, what if you were about to be put to death and you were innocent? According to Webster’s Online Dictionary, “Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the execution of a person by the state as punishment for a crime.” Why does the United State use this “eye for an eye” concept? It seems like such a medieval practice, one in which we continue to use in a civilized time. One professor of law explains that, “because of the goals that our criminal justice system must satisfy – deterring crime, punishing the guilty, acquitting the innocent, avoiding needless cruelty, treating citizens equally, and preventing oppression by
The capital case laws mandate that a defendant facing a possible death sentence is entitled to two attorneys rather than just one. In most capital cases the accused can’t afford the cost of the trial so the cost is absorbed by the state. The accused is also entitled to have relevant experts in their cases to speak for them, once again this cost falls to the state. Capital trials tend to last three to five times longer than non-capital trials which also have a direct impact to the overall cost. Additionally, and probably the most important factor to driving up cost, is the appeal process. Lawyer Pamela Koslyn explains that “there is no limit on appeals, so the time and money spent on a capital case is unlimited” (Death Penalty Info). For example, in a performance audit report completed in
Granted, capital punishment has come a long way since the days of when it was used to inflict the most pain while holding them in public view. Could you imagine attending an execution today, how about witnessing a person being beheaded, burned at the stake or worse, being boiled to death like they used to? Capital punishment comes from a pretty dark past, and I know that we have gone away from those extreme violent acts. Today, “34 states allow the death penalty while 16 states do not” (Williams 28), and in most cases prisoners on death row are generally executed by lethal injection, but a former executioner states that “as he sat behind a curtain and pulled the lever, releasing a fatal cocktail of three drugs that seemed to him less humane than the electricity he previously unleashed by pulling a switch. The chemicals of lethal injection always took eternal minutes longer than the deadly jolt from the electric chair” (Daly 42). Of course, the United States has tried to make this a more humane system as to not inflict unnecessary pain to the condemned. However, it is suggested that, “because of the insufficient doses, that two [men] are believed to have suffered the horror of being suffocated by the paralyzing pancuronium bromide, and then the agony of being burned from within by the potassium chloride” (Daly 44). I couldn’t imagine the feeling, nor would I be