Week 3 Discussion

Many states use a lethal injection system for execution of convicted killers. California is one of those states. What issues are raised when an inmate facing lethal injection contends that the method is unconstitutional because the procedure causes unusual pain and suffering? How should they be resolved?

The history of the death penalty is that of great length dating back to the time before Christ. One is able to find laws that the Roman Empire had in place to convict a criminal of death. In the Tenth Century to include Colonial time, in the new found America, the death penalty was extremely rash, cruel and unfair. People of this era were tortured beaten and killed for the smallest of crimes. However, in the 1800’s sensitivity and justice started to become the main idea. In the 1900’s to present, lasting changes have impacted society greatly. Reform and new ideas of punishment is of the utmost importance with death as a last resort. At the close of the 1950’s and 1960’s there was an argument on the horizon. Many courts across America felt that the death penalty was possibly unconstitutional particularly in regards to the Eighth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment. Because of this, the Supreme Court was forced to take a hard look at the constitution. The case of Furman v. Georgia eventually reached the Supreme Court in 1972.

The death penalty has received more scrutiny from lawmakers around the country and the courts. Illinois is in the eighth year of its moratorium on executions, and executions are effectively halted in New York because of a 2004 court ruling. Also, questions about whether lethal injection is inhumane have put executions on hold in nine states — Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio and South Dakota — and in the federal system.

In this case the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision effectively striking down most federal and state death penalty laws finding them "arbitrary and capricious." The...