Lethal Injection: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Lethal Injection: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Keith Melton

4519910

LSTD502

Terri L. Wilkin, J.D.

Lethal Injection: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Abstract

Lethal injection is the method of execution that is most commonly used in the United States.  Lethal injection was supposed to be a more humane method of execution which if carried out properly is painless.  However, it is too often that lethal injection executions end up being botched and the result is a painful death for the inmate being executed.  There are many variables that can go wrong to create a painful death for the inmate being executed such as improper administration of the lethal injection drugs and unexpected medical reactions to the lethal injection drugs.  A painful death for the inmate at the hands of the state should be considered cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Introduction

The death penalty has long been the source of debate in the public arena.  It would seem that everyone has an opinion on the matter.  To some violence breeds more violence and to others if someone takes a life they deserve to pay for it with their life.  Whatever someone’s opinion is on the issue of the death penalty, it is still a sentence that can legally be handed out in the United States in some jurisdictions for crimes such as capital murder.  

In the United States, the method in which this sentence is carried out in most instances is lethal injection.  Lethal injection was supposed to be a more humane way to put someone to death when compared to other methods such as hanging, gas chamber, the electric chair or firing squad.  Lethal injection is carried out by giving the inmate a lethal dose of drugs intravenously. The drug combination eventually causes the inmate’s heart to stop.

There many arguments for and against the use of the death penalty.  Many of those arguments against the use of the death penalty hinge on the belief that the death penalty is a violation of the Eight Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause.  It is not my intention to prove nor is it my belief that the death penalty itself is a cruel and unusual punishment.  However, it light of a series of recently botched executions where lethal injection was administered and the person being executed purportedly showed signs of distress, it is my belief that the death penalty carried out by lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.  

The death penalty carried out using lethal injection as the method violates the 8th Amendment’s clause barring the use of cruel and unusual punishment.  To prove this point, a look will be given at the overall practice of lethal injection as it is administered in the United States, cases where the lethal injection did not go as it should have will be examined, and case law that defines the Supreme Court’s view on cruel and unusual punishment will be thoroughly examined.

How Lethal Injection Works