The lethal injection executions illustrates a constitutional violation of the branch 's overreach as described by the 8th amendment due to its cases bring either successful in the execution or providing sufferable pain to death row inmates. One of the current problems in the Judicial branch is the use of lethal injection towards execution sessions. Lethal injection is an injection that is administered for the purpose of euthanasia and capital punishment. There are two methods of lethal injection today, one using a three drug protocol and the 2nd being the large dose of barbiturate. Lethal injection is used for capital punishment as it follows the 8th amendment we have today. The 8th amendment states that “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted”. Justice Samuel and four other justices conclude that the lethal injection does not cause harm and does not violate the 8th amendment according to this article. “ Testimony from both sides supports the District Court’s conclusion that midazolam(medicine) can render a person insensate to pain” says Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Justice …show more content…
According to this article, to name a few, through history, it started from hangings in 1879, then electrocution by chair in 1890, until it reached lethal injection in 2008 where it deemed more humane. Several opinions were added in order to conduct an alternative method that would have a little to no chance in violating the 8th amendment. Officials can act unconstitutionally if they were to execute a condemned person in a procedure that intentionally makes it painful or in another way where they did not care whether it actually was. Due to this, this mostly continued to set an outer limit on how the death penalty can be carried out and since the court was unable to gather an actual majority to decipher the limit more
1 Compare and Contrast A Summary of First Author From the court case, Glossip v. Gross, Samuel Alito, Supreme Court Justice, argues that lethal injection IS a constitutional method of execution. He argues that lethal injection is “a fast-acting barbiturate sedative that induces a deep, coma-like unconsciousness when given in the amounts used for lethal injection...inhibits all muscular-skeletal movements...inducing cardiac arrest.”
Although inmates are being put to death, their death does not have to be stressful and painful. The inmate serving death-row and facing death may deserve death for their actions, However, a painful death is a cruel punishment and inhumane. The lethal injection drugs should be carefully evaluated by Drug Enforcement Administration and be free of cruelty when being administered to the inmate. Just because someone is going to die anyway, the lethal injection matters on what will be administered. Off market drugs is illegal to obtain when there is not a prescription, therefore, off market drugs should not be allowed for use in a correctional center for death
The use of midazolam does not violate the 8th amendment. There have only been a few cases that have failed, and we have improved our strategy. Even if the execution takes more than the estimated amount of time, there is not a substantial amount of pain that would be consisered as cruel and unusual punishment. In addition, those being given capital punishment are deprived of life for taking away the lives of others. Opinion of the Court (Justice Samuel A Alito Jr.)
The Supreme Court has observed that a method of execution violates the Eighth Amendment if it inherently involves “torture or a lingering death” or is “inhuman and barbarous.” This was brought into question in the case of Glossip V. Gross when Oklahoma introduced the drug midazolam as a new execution drug. The case also brings into question whether the court is required to supply a form of execution when the government cannot find one itself. In Baze v. Rees the three-drug protocol was observed for lethal injection by at least 30 states, where barbiturate, an anesthesia that causes the person to go unconscious and two other drugs which paralyzed the prisoner eventually causes them to go into cardiac arrest.
The combination of a lethal injection includes these three drugs: First sodium thiopental is used as an anesthetic; second, pancuronium bromide is used to paralyze the person, and lastly they induce you into cardiac arrest using potassium chloride. American business magnate Donald Trump said “Anyone who would commit an act as heinous as this clearly has deep rooted emotional problems. While this crime was an insane act, it demonstrates a deep lack of respect for law and order by a segment of society in this country. I would be in favor of the death penalty for this type of senseless and violent act (as well as others like espionage, treason, acts of terrorism) committed against innocent citizens. The trial should be expeditious
Though the court did, however, concede that a state could fall in violation of the 8th amendment if an inmate offers a known and available alternative method of execution, and it is not granted without a proper justification (Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 2 2008). Through this, a test of constitutionality was estalblished, providing that a challenge must include evidence of significant pain, as well as a known and readily available alternative. Glossip v. Gross is often discussed in tandem with Baze, as they both challenged the constitutionality of execution by lethal injection. Glossip emerged when an inmate in Oklahoma had woken up during his execution and suffering for forty minutes before death. The tree-drug protocol was reevaluated, and a new protocol emerged, one that used one of the drugs from the first.
But no great reformation occurred until 1833. Those who witnessed public executions either reveled in the excitement of the event, or violently rioted in its aftereffects. There were some repulsive executions that led to abolition, such as “In 1853, Wisconsin abolished the death penalty after a gruesome execution in which the victim struggled for five minutes at the end of the rope, and a full eighteen minutes passed before his heart finally quit” (Reggio). In 1930, Eva Dugan was the first female to be executed in Arizona, and her “execution was botched when the hangman misjudged the drop and Mrs. Dugan's head was ripped from her body” (Reggio). But success against capital punishment didn’t see much of any fruition until 1972, when the Supreme Court declared it cruel and unusual in Furman v. Georgia, based on ‘discriminatory sentencing guidelines.’
On February 14, 2006, a United States district court issued an unprecedented ruling in the execution of murderer Michael Morales. In order to uphold the Constitutions Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment California was ordered to have a physician, specifically an anesthesiologist, personally supervise the execution by lethal injection to determine the prisoner’s state of consciousness (p101). The American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) strongly opposed this ruling stating that “Physicians are healers not
Hanging was the main method of execution in America until the electric chair was invented in 1890. Then came gas chambers and lethal injection in the 1920s and 1970s respectively. There were downsides to all of these methods of execution including decapitation for hanging, heads catching on fire with the electric chair, and expenses for lethal injection. The Supreme Court halted all executions for four years in 1972 because of an abolitionist group protesting possibly discriminatory convictions. After this, lethal injection was invented and adopted by many U.S. states.
In today’s day and age, a person does not get put to death for just any crime. A recurring argument against the death penalty is that sentencing a defendant to death violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition. The Eighth Amendment protects against cruel and unusual punishment. Mental illness is expressly recognized as a mitigating factor in most death penalty statutes. The Supreme Court came to the conclusion in the case of Ford vs. Wainwright that the use of cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to execute a person whose mental state renders understanding of capital punishment is impossible.
Now, with the shortage of common drugs used in lethal injections, the Court is not handing the task over to doctors, and scientists, but rather politicians and lawyers who are not trained in the effects of lethal drugs. In recent executions, the offender might hold on to life for as long as twenty-five minutes, to two hours. Some might argue that this violates the Eighth Amendment, as letting someone suffer for two hours is certainly cruel and unusual punishment. In my opinion, this drug needs to be tested before someone is left barely hanging on to life for two
It’s Not working out. By:Taija Jones. The 8th amendment says “Excessive bail shall not be required, Nor excessive fines imposed, Nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” . With that being said if the 8th amendment applies for cruel punishments of death penalties then why is it still happening.
The death penalty is a controversial issue that has been debated in the United States for a long period of time. In our own state of Texas, executing convicted criminals has become second nature. This is due to the fact that Texas has executed more people than any other state in the United States since 1976. So why does Texas lead the United States in executions? There are many reasons and factors that has led to this point.
The death penalty is a punishment of execution, given to someone legally convicted of a capital crime. The death penalty laws were established in the 18th century B.C when king Hammaurabi of Babylon instituted the law for 25 different crimes. In Jewish history the death penalty could only be given after trail by the Sanhedrin, which was composed of twenty-three judges. There were four different ways the death penalty was imposed on an individual, these were burning, stoning, strangling and slaying (Talmud). In today’s society most countries have abolished the death penalty due to various reasons such as unfair justice, but others still have it in place, for example some states in The United States of America.
In that decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty did not violate the Eight Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.” Throughout the years, there have been numerous debates