Is execution by lethal injection cruel and unusual punishment?
149964
Lethal injection is uniquely American. \nYes, it is an unusual punishment for the non-Americans.  \n\nDeath penalty is irrevocable. It is a direct violation of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yes, lethal injection is a cruel punishment like any other capital punishment.\n\nMore than half the countries in the world have now abolished the death penalty in law and practice. \n\n86 countries for all crimes, \n11 countries for ordinary crimes, \n25 countries in practice.\n\nUSA, -the world role model for human rights-, is among the countries such as Zimbabwe, Qatar, Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Congo, Chad, Sudan, Iran, Tanzania, Comoros, North Korea, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ghana, China … which are just ‘retain’ the death penalty for 'ordinary crimes'. \n\nOn the other hand, it looks like lethal injection is currently the favoured method of execution in USA. The statistics for the period of 1976-2002 are;\n\nLethal injection - 618 executions \nElectrocution - 150 executions \nGas chamber - 11 executions\nHanging - 3 executions.\nFiring Squad - 2 executions. \n\nLethal injection is considered to be more humane than others. \n\nActually, lethal injection is just humane for the ‘witnesses’ not ‘the person being executed’.No matter how you dress it up, you are still killing a human being.\n\nIt is known that in about 40 % of the cases where lethal injection has been used, there have been misuses and it has taken as long as 45 minutes for the condemned to die. \n\nIf the main consideration is truly to be ‘humane’ to ‘the person being executed’, why not the ‘firing squad’ ? Such a death is said to be faster and less painful than lethal injection.
928609
I think that if the death penalty is warranted, than it doesn't matter how the peson dies.  The whole idea that lethal injection is "inhumane" is irrelevant.  And hypocritical.  You're killing someone, but you don't want to hurt them???  Absurd.  Lethal injection is fine, but too expensive.  Bullets are cheap, I think a single gunshot to the brain is the best way to carry out a death penalty sentence.
1079151
my state, Missouri, uses lethal injection.\n\ni can't help but think that its too good a way for some of the prisoners to die.\n\na few years back we had 3-4 black men out for a little 'fun' on a weekend evening.  they found 2 gals and a guy out walking.  they beat the hell out of the guy---i don't know if he survived the beating or not.  they raped AND beat the girls and then threw them OFF A FRIGGIN BRIDGE INTO THE MISSISSIPPI!\n\nman, that ain't right. so they're caught, becase they were BRAGGIN about it!  they are tried and convicted and spend the next 15 or so years on death row appealing their sentence.   \n\nthen when all appeals are exhausted and our governor won't issue the bastards a pardon, they are led into a little room, an iv is set up, a button is pushed and a series of three drugs are infused into the prisoner.  the first puts the bastard to sleep, the next paralyzes his breathing and the third stops his heart.   to me, this is just TOO easy a way to go after what they did to the 3 white people almost 20 years go.\n\nand of course, there were the usual gang of idiots outside the prison protesting the "unfair" and "inhumane" treatment of the prisoners.   puhleeze!\n\ni'd say lethal injection--it gets the job done and is cheap.  probably not as cheap as a bullet or a few jolts of electricity, but it works,
516696
well, i don't like to think that we have the right to take a human life.....on the other hand, my cousin was murdered and her assassin got 7 years.  He should have died.  After all he took her life.  Our prison system does not rehabilitate nor can it simply because the people inside are sociopaths.  so yeah, I'm for the death penalty and lethal injection is probably the least messy choice.
874451
Assuming that you are talking about here in the United States; In order for someone to be eligible for the death penalty they would have to kill at least one person and probably more. My question is: is their death by lethal injection any more cruel than what they did to their victims? So my answer is, they are getting better than they deserve when they are executed and it is too humane.
415079
Death Sentence = Capital Punishment
978301
Death penalty laws are social engineering. I cannot subscribe to the ethics of social engineering. As a nurse who has worked in the system with pedophiles, I know also that episodic imprisonment is ineffective. They are relentless. I support the only known ethical solution which is chemical castration.  But, then again, I believe in that for Conservatives, too.
60698
"Penry held that the applicaiton of the death penalty to persons who are metnally retarded but not legally insane does not violate the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishments."\n\nThis decision was later overturned by Atkins v. Virginia (2002), which ruled that "Executions of mentally retarded criminals are 'cruel and unusual punnishments' prohibited by the Eighth Amendment."
265539
No, sir, we don't live in the ancient times.  Nowadays that's considered cruel and unusual punishment.\n\nYeah, but the constitution says they are free from cruel and unusual punishment.
33451
let's take "Tookie" for example.  He shot a couple people in cold blood.  Hung out and watched them gasp for life... Witnessed the swan song if you will.  Took 20 minutes to find his vein to put the lethal injection in.  Drats.... I don't suppose anyone in that room laughed at his swan song!  The old man who got it the other night.  He called out for the killing of some people from his jail cell.  Blind and Deaf.  people say it was cruel and unusual for him to be executed... Life lesson kids.. don't kill and you won't be killed!!!!
1024222
Those are all good points for the legislatures to consider but the constitution does not allow the court to simply decide that the death penalty is unwise.  State legislatures decide and then then Court decides if that penalty is barred as "cruel and unusual" punishment but the constitution doesn't preclude state laws that are merely "counterproductive."  so, run for your state legislature and vote to abolish the death penalty in your state.
1084067
Yes but there would have to be very strict osntrols surrounding it and it would have to be done in a controlled environment such as a hospital. Imagine if someone killed a person and stood up in court and said "it was a mercy killing, they wanted to die" and there was no way of convicting them or murder.
564596
Each State has its own guidelines for capital punishment.\n\nBut for the Federal guidelines- there are many- some of which are not murder - although most of them are circumstances that require a death result (such as kidnapping where a death results; attack on an airline where a death results) but there are some like treason, or related to drug kingpins, etc.\n\nHere is a link- it's pretty dense- but it's all there:\n\nhttp://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL30962.pdf
554197
The electric chair is no longer in use. Executions these days are carried out by lethal injection.
143255
i think it should be that way but it cant because there can be no cruel or unusual punsihment  the punishment is death and the only way they do it is in a painless way  sucks doesnt it
1152773
No, I do not.\n\nIf we had capitol punishment here in Britain we might already have executed a few people who were acquitted several years later.\nAlso, why is it assumed that capitol punishment is worse than life imprisonment (and I mean life). Some prisoners commit suicide in prison.\n\nAnother problem with capitol punishment is that the condemmed person's family probably suffer as much as they do.\n\nLeaving aside the religious arguament that "though shalt not kill)\nI do this, not because I do not believe in it, but because you could go on writing for ever about the morality of it.\n\nYou have to remember also, that the state is carrying out executions in cold blood. The murderer may have had some reason for doing what he did, no matter how twisted. Also, on a personal level, what does it say about the person/persons who are prepared to kill other people as part of their job, and no, it is not the same as the military doing it.\nPlease don't give me the response, "It's my duty" or, "somebody has to do it. You are operating on a personal level when you are doing a job.\n\nI find it particularly distasteful, when executions are turned into circuses, as in th US. If you have to execute people, I am sure that the state can be trusted to do the job without about two hundred and fifty Madam la Farges' looking on. At least the person should be allowed to die with some sort of dignity. Whist I am on this subject, let me also say that I am disgusted and appalled that some women seem have been directly involved in carrying out executions. Particularly because women tend to personalise things more than men. I have to wonder what their real motivation is, because it is nearly always men that are executed. Please don't give me "it's only a job" or equal opportunities stuff.\n\nFinally, I would like to set a little test for those who, from afar, think that they believe in capitol punishment.\nWould you be personally prepared to carry it out? Would you still believe in it if it was a member of your own family. Would you be prepared to carry it out yourself in those circumstances.It's easy letting someone else carry it out, particularly when you don't know the condemmed.\n\nThere aren't any good reasons for capitol punishment, except that it saves the cost of keeping the prisoner in jail.\n\nFinally, I am not a soppy liberal, I think that life should mean life.
61277
Yes it is cruel to do that to a person. And I know that in Oregan, it is legal for a person to decide wheather or not they want to die. However, I don't know if its legal anywhere else. I think it should be, but lots of people look down on it as "assisted suicide".