The Death Penalty and Where Stand Today

ENC 1102

Dawn DeSanti

September 15, 2010

The Death Penalty and Where Stand Today

Death penalty in the forms of lethal injections has been a moral and ethical discussion for many years. The article “Death Penalty Walking” written by David Von Drehle touches on the professionalism and the medicinal political views of U.S. executions. It also, offers the point of views of many American’s reflecting their values pertaining to our constitutions. Also, despite the fact that many states still believe and carry out the death penalty, its use has declined significantly. The author uses many strategies in his article to persuade the reader to make a logical conclusion on the overall decision to support or impose the death penalty; examples of this will be found in the following paragraphs.

U.S. executions have evolved from the use of the electric chairs to the lethal three drug cocktail injections. How safe and ethical is this procedure? While the injections seem effective in an execution, it has not been proven to be pain less and safe for the individual when administered. These injections are usually administered by untrained prison officials whom cannot determine if the inmate is dead or alive and are not properly trained in the event something ever went wrong.

Many lawyers and jurors strongly prefer to not be involved in the prosecution of prisoners involving the death penalty sentence because many do not agree with it and serving in that case is quiet difficult. In fact, many states have abolished the law. Even the states that carry out the death penalty law are slow to perform prisoner executions.

Another main issue mentioned is “The Signature American against over how to balance individual’s rights with public order.” (p3) How can one be sure that lethal injections do not conflict with human rights? A perfect example is that of what happened to prisoner Willie Francis back in 1945 where he was executed in the electric chair and something...