The Death Penalty

The Death Penalty

COM 156

August 17, 2014

Does capital punishment act as a better deterrent to murder than a long prison sentence? The first legal execution of a criminal in America was in 1623 in the Jamestown colony where Daniel Franken was hung for theft. (Frank D.) During the Colonial period, a person could be put to death for a variety of reasons, as opposed to modern times where the crime must consist of willful murder. Hanging remained the primary means of execution until August 6, 1890, when William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by way of the electric chair. Throughout the 20th century additional methods were used, including the gas chamber, firing squad and lethal injection, all of which remain employed today. After centuries of executions, one would think lawmakers would have realized that the death penalty is unequally applied and does not deter crime.

All States that employ the death penalty use lethal injection as their primary means. Traditionally, the lethal cocktail has consisted of Sodium Thiopental, to render the condemned unconscious, Pancuronium Bromide to relax the muscles to the point of apparent paralysis, and Potassium Chloride to stop the heart. The manufacturers of these drugs are primarily European companies. Recently, these companies were prohibited by the European Union to export the drugs for lethal injection purposes. This ban has resulted in a mass shortage of the required drugs. Due to the lack of supply, states have been experimenting with their own versions of a lethal cocktail. The results are abhorrent – four botched executions in the first seven months of 2014.

On July 23, 2014, officials at the Florence State Prison in Florence, Arizona administered an experimental lethal cocktail to Joseph Rudolph Wood. Wood subsequently gasped for air for more than ninety minutes. The Associated Press reported Wood gasped more than 600 times. As he struggled to breathe, additional doses of the...