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Typanga Patterson

American Gov. M/W/F

Sarah Hendrex

April 25, 2017

Death Penalty

The argument on if the death penalty is inhumane for criminals has been a constant battle

until the dawn of time, and the founding fathers of our nations struggled just as much with this as

our country does today. Since the Roman times many believe it was an eye for an eye but now

many wonder what happens after/during execution and should criminals go through that pain.

This is a struggle that was highlighted in Baze V. Reese that they talked about the procedure of

the death penalty and does it go against our 8th amendment right. On top of these questions that

are hard to answer there is also many questions such as who is exempt from these charges, are

there exceptions (does stuff just accidentally happen sometimes), mental illness, age, and many

other situations play a part in deciding what we are going to do as a country about setting the

lines about who gets the death penalty and who doesnt. When we can answer these questions, or

control our feelings for criminals, this is when we can really understand if the death penalty may

or may not be a positive and effective justification for crimes.

The death penalty has been a form a punishment for as far as history records. There has

been many ways to go about it all the way from, cutting off peoples heads in the town square,

hanging, and lynching, and now we have lethal injection. Even though we do have the option to

perform lethal ejection, most countries choose not to have this punishment at all, only 31 states

still have the death penalty as a criminal option. What most states do when someone is faced
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with the death Penalty they tend to put them on death row. According to the article Time on

Death Row it states that Death Row Prisoners in the U.S. typically spend more than a decade

awaiting execution. Some prisoners have been on death row for well over 20 years (Para. 2,

Eckhom). This not only defeats the point of the death penalty but also raises citizens tax dollars,

and there are multiple other factors that go into putting someone through solidary for that long of

a period of time. For prisoners that are waiting on death row they have to spend basically their

whole day inside, they spend up to 23 hours in confinement. They are not allowed outside, with

the other prison population, and arent allowed to be a part of the prisons educational or

employment programs. Some may argue that cooping a person up for that long can be extremely

inhumane. Thats when you can argue and say it was inhume for them to kill, rape, or mass

murder people. When the time comes and the prisoner is sent to be executed, maybe after many

years, they start by strapping them down to a bed, then they have a doctor on site and he puts an

IV in the prisoners arm. Once the IV is in, they start a machine in the back room (where no one

can see) and it will first put you to sleep, then it stops your breathing slowly, and then they

basically send you into cardio arrest, thus pronouncing you dead. In the court case Baze V Rees

two Kentucky inmates tried to challenge the states cocktail of drugs through the process of

lethal injection, saying that it was unconstitutional. In the end the courts ruled that the lethal

injection protocol was not unconstitutional and wasnt cruel and unusual in anyway. The question

still remains though, is lethal injection against our 8th amendment right? Of course the answer is

no because in no way are they inflicting cruel and unusual punishment during the practice of

lethal injection.

Ruling to see if something is against someones right as a human is a very hard answer

that comes with a ton of questions, ridicule, and loopholes. The reason why we tend to put
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prisoners through such extensive time on death row is because courts need to find out if this

persons crime is deep enough to end their lives, making it a very touchy subject. There are times

when people do make honest mistakes, even though this may be once in a blue moon it still

happens. In the court cause Furman V Georgia, Furman was trying to burglarize someones home

when a member of that family caught him the act. When Furman tried to run away he fell and

accidently killed the family member by shooting his gun off. Some might say he still deserved

the death penalty, which he got, but I would argue that Furman was in the wrong place at the

wrong time. Furmans case along with two others have created constitutional concerns on the

death sentence under the topic of rape and murder convictions. Furman is a good example on

why we should really look into the cases, really think about different solutions and other forms of

punishment (only for some, because most are truly guilty). Being that Furman honest to God

didnt intend on hurting anyone in the process of burglarizing the home, he should have gotten a

different sentence. Furmans court case once again brought up the topic on if the death penalty

inflicted on our cruel and unusual clause. There are many other factors that come into taking

someones life (like I mentioned before), one of the main factors that has to be considered is if

that person is there completely or not, mentally of course.

Mental Illness is a tough subject to wrap your head around, someone can seem

completely normal but be massively mentally ill in so many ways. This leads to the question are

they mentally ill? This is a hard question to not only answer but also to inspect, people claim to

be mentally ill all the time but whether they are or not is a completely different story. Plus you

have to think, should we kill someone if they dont fully comprehend what they did? In a PBS

article Insanity Defense FAQs it informs how most of the United States uses the MNaughten

rule. This was based off a British case in 1843 where a deranged woodcutter tried to kill the
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prime minister. In the Court case they found that the defendant was not guilty on the fact that at

the time of committing the act, he was laboring under such a defect of reason from disease of the

mind as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he

did not know what he was doing wrong. (emphasis added) (Para. 2, PBS). This is the court

case that the United States follows, meaning that if the United States believed that someone may

be incompetent all the time and maybe didnt think what they did is wrong, then they are

declared mentally ill. Of course there are multiple therapy courses and physiatrist that help with

this decision but that is the general sense on what goes on. When declared mentally ill they go to

an insane asylum, which is almost bad maybe even worse than a prison. In the court case Penry

V Lynaugh, Penry was a mentally challenged man with the mental age of barely seven years

old. He was convicted of murder and thus given the death sentence. In the court trial the jury

was told not to consider his mental illness. In the conclusion of the court, it was partially

affirmed. Justice OConner believed that the jury was given the wrong instructions and they

should have taken into effect that Penry was mentally challenged. Even with OConner believing

this, she still rejected Penrys blanket claim stating that the Eighth Amendment does not allow

the death sentence for retarded defendants. Sometimes the death penalty can be unforgiving,

but in other cases it just might save a life.

In the Court case Thompson V Oklahoma, Thompson was a 15 year old male who was

convicted of first degree murder and therefore he was sentenced to death in November of 1987.

Thompson was took before the Supreme Court and argued that this was against his eighth

amendment right to be tried as an adult. The courts agreed that this was unconstitutional, thus

proclaiming through the fourteenth amendment that anyone under the age of 16 cannot be

sentenced to death because it just so happens to violate the evolving standards of decency that
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mark the progress of a maturing society (Seniority Statement). So after Thompsons case it made

it clear that no one under the age of 16 could be sentenced to death, so on the good note about the

death penalty, if your young and you mess up at least you wont be killed. Its good to see these

laws and cases because it shows that there really is some humanity put into the death penalty and

the courts really do care sometimes even if it doesnt look like it.

The argument on whether the death penalty is inhumane or not will most likely be a

question until the second coming, but sometimes we have to stop feeling bad for people that

dont have the same humanity in them like we do. The cases I pointed out are good cases and

great examples but there are sometimes where people deserve the death penalty for being

horribly cruel to others for no reason. The fact that we have them sit on death row for years and

years is crazy and uncalled for, and frankly its wasting our taxpayers money in the process. Yes,

there are factors like mental illness, age, accidents, etc. but I believe that if we really try to hit the

court cases on the head in the beginning and find out all there is to know then it wouldnt take

almost 20 years to solve the question if someone deserves to die or not. I strongly agree that if all

states practiced the lethal injection with stricter enforcements and more regularly then more

people wouldnt commit crimes so freely like they do today. I believe that if the government put

a little fear into everyone then crime rates would drop in general, and thats a common sense fact.

If our punishment system was something as extreme as an eye for an eye I truly believe that

some people would think twice before committing a crime. With that being said, I see nothing

wrong with the death penalty, I believe that it was created for a reason and we should practice it

and take it more seriously in a court of law.

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Work Cited
Baze V. Rees. Baze ET AL. V. Rees, Commissioner, Kentucky Department of Corrections, ET
AL. No. 07-5439. Certiorari to the Supreme Court of Kentucky. 2008. Body Politic. The
Supreme Court and Abortion Law, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017. https://www.oyez.org/cases/2007/07-
5439
Furman Vs Georgia. Burger Court. No. 69-5030. Supreme court of Georgia. 1972. Body Politic.
The Supreme Court and Abortion Law, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/69-5030
"Insanity Defense FAQs." PBS. Public Broadcasting Service, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.
J. Katz & E. Eckhom, "Time on Death Row," New York Times, September 2, 2014." Death
Penalty Information Center. Time on Death Row, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.
Penry V. Lynaugh. 492 U.S. 302. United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. 1989.
Body Politic. The Supreme Court and Abortion Law, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1988/87-6177
Thompson V. Oklahoma. 487 U.S. 815. Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. 1988. Body
Politic. The Supreme Court and Abortion Law, n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.