Daliab's Waterfall
Your source http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2015/ 04/supreme-court-to-decide-constitutionality-of-lethal-injection-drugs/; doesnt work!
Maryland was the most recent in 2013. New Hampshire came very close to becoming the 19th state to abolish the death penalty. The repeal lost by one single vote! Nebraska is also questioning the death penalty. There has been a massive change the past few years in opinions of the death penalty in states.
Lots of things can go wrong in the execution of a person. For example Dennis McGuire’s case in Ohio or Clayton Lockett’s case in. His execution took nearly 25 minutes which was 10 minutes of struggling and gasping. McGuire was executed with a mix of drugs that had never been used before in a lethal injection execution. This violated the 8th Amendment “no cruel or unusual punishment.” Since he suffered for 25 minutes. His daughter Amber McGuire said:“I can’t think of any other way to describe it than torture.” Thirty two states permit the use of lethal injections during executions but the nationwide drug shortage is making it hard for them to find new ways to execute people. Ohio used different drugs on McGuire because the manufacturers of other drugs used in executions don’t export them to be used for capital punishment anymore. The drug used on McGuire was called midazolam which was also used in 5 other executions that year. One of them being Clayton Lockett’s execution. Lockett’s execution took 43 minutes until he was declared dead. One of his veins blew after injecting one of the three drugs, which prevented the drug from effectively going into his body. Under the 8th amendment it is stated that “no cruel or unusual punishment” is allowed to be used. What happened to McGuire and Lockett is cruel. Even though they have done a crime they shouldn’t have to suffer in their execution.
Now that sounds like a really "cruel" punishment.
This is from the article: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/cruel-and-unusual-punishment
The drug shortage in the U.S. is forcing them to use a lot of back up drugs that have not been used before. Most executions in the U.S. used a simple 3 combination drug formula. In 2009, 50 out of the 52 people executed used the 3 drug combination. Most of America’s drugs came from European companies but now the companies are refusing to sell their products to be used for executions. Hospira was the main manufacturing company that supplied drugs to the U.S. When they backed out U.S. went to Lundbeck a Danish company which protested the use of their drug in executions.This is forcing the U.S. states to start experimenting using more/less drugs or less effective ones. It is also forcing states to turn to other choices like electric chair(Virginia), firing squad(Wyoming), and the gas chamber(Missouri).
“In 2014, we have a far riskier, more haphazard lethal injection procedure than we ever have had throughout the country,” said Deborah W. Denno, a death penalty expert and a professor at Fordham Law School.
“Despite all the litigation that has occurred…lethal injection has never been riskier or more problematic than it has been within the last four or five years, because of the drug shortages,” Denno said.
Experimenting different drugs on people isn’t right and can cause lots of unneeded pain.
Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Where are your 3 points that you are going to argue? You say that the death penalty is not "cruel or unusual," but you have no proof. More states are starting to question the death penalty. Currently 18 states have officially abolished it since 2007. The most recent in 2013.
Hello,
I’m Yaashna, and this is Kendra and Dalia.
Today we will talk to you about the death penalty and if it should be allowed under the 8th Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishments from being inflicted upon the accused. We think that capital punishment (the death penalty) should not be allowed as it is unconstitutional under the 8th Amendment.
These are the points that we will argue today:
Firstly, sometimes the judge doesn’t have all the facts and evidence needed to make the judgment, or the accused doesn’t have a good enough lawyer to defend them. The jury can make a rash judgment and their decision is final. Once a life is gone, it can’t be recovered. Not even after some hidden evidence has been found to prove that the accused is innocent.
Secondly, the death penalty can go wrong. Often, the argument is that it is painless and quick, but when it goes wrong it can cause excruciating pain for hours. For example, the lethal injection often reacts badly with people, and does not kill them straight away.This has happened in many cases, where people have had to suffer for a long time.
Often these executions can be quite expensive. The millions currently spent on the executions can be used to help the murder victim’s family, to help pay for counselling and other ways to get their lives back on track.
We will be presenting these points with a variety of sources, information/facts, and evidence to prove our point that there are other measures that can be taken to avoid the death penalty.
