IndexOutline of an argumentative essay on the death penaltyIntroductionThe process of capital punishmentLethal injection as the main methodSupport for lethal injectionCritics of lethal injectionChanging drug protocolsAlternative perspectivesConclusionExample of an argumentative essay about the death penaltyOverview of its use in the death penaltyThe controversy over lethal injectionThe process of capital punishmentHow capital punishment is initiatedThe waiting period on death rowThe execution process, including appealsLethal injection as the main methodIntroduction of lethal injection as an execution method Widespread adoption in US states Comparison with other execution methods Support for lethal injection Arguments in favor of lethal injection Belief that it is an improvement over older methods Concern for victims' families Critics of lethal injection Arguments against lethal injection Eighth Amendment and concerns about cruel and unusual punishment Questions about drug administration and effectiveness Changing drug protocols Evolution of drug combinations used in lethal injection Challenges and debates about lethal injection drug availability Instances of botched executions Outlook alternativesCases in which criminals themselves prefer executionConsideration of life in prison as a form of punishmentThe moral and ethical implications of capital punishmentConclusionSummarizing the debate over lethal injectionCall for further examination of the process and its impact on criminalsSample argumentative essay on the death penaltyThe Cambridge dictionary said: “An injection of a drug that kills someone, especially as punishment for committing a crime.” Lethal injection is a procedure used to kill people sentenced to death. Thirty-seven states use lethal injection to kill criminals sentenced to death. Lethal injection is used in prisons as a method of causing the immediate death of criminals and is controversial because it causes pain to the people who administer it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Lethal injection occurs after a person is convicted of a crime and is sentenced to the death penalty or capital punishment. The capital punishment process begins when a person is found guilty of a crime and sentenced to death. However, the execution process can take years while in the meantime the criminal can appeal to obtain the conviction. “Meanwhile, the prisoner lives in a section of a state or federal prison called death row. The specific events that follow may vary from state to state, but the overall process is generally the same. Once the prisoner's appeal options have been exhausted, an execution order is issued and an execution date is set. The condemned person can be moved from the general detention area to a special area of the prison, called the death guard. This area can be housed in the same building as the execution chamber. Some states transfer the inmate to another prison, a central prison where executions are carried out.” This is the process that all people sentenced to death had to go through. This also explains that executions do not happen immediately because for some people this takes longer than for others. Lethal injection was introduced in prison 30 years ago. Since the introduction of lethal injection, it has been the main method of execution. There are thirty-eight states that have capital punishment or the death penalty in theirprison system and thirty-seven states use lethal injection as a method of killing. The only state that does not use lethal injection is Nebraska which uses the electric chair. Many argue that lethal injection is less painful than other methods used to cause death. This shows that lethal injection is not painful for criminals. “Lethal injection uses a combination, or “cocktail,” of three chemicals, which are intended to put to sleep, paralyze and then kill the inmate who is being executed.” Many will argue that this is the end result of lethal injection because it can cause the person to remain awake during the execution, causing them pain as they die. Many people favor lethal injection because they want criminals to pay for their crimes. Supporters claim that “lethal injection represents a vast improvement over older forms of execution and it is unreasonable to think that pain can be completely eliminated during executions. Contesting lethal injection gives inmates the ability to indefinitely postpone their executions.” They know that pain is part of the dying process. “Proponents add that absolute painlessness is an unrealistic goal. “The idea that a murderer is entitled to a painless death, which relatively few of us will have, I don't think is tenable.” They explain that criminals sentenced to death and killed by lethal injection experience a kind of pain no matter what happens, because death is painful. “Supporters also dispute the idea that lethal injection is too complicated a procedure for correctional officers to handle.” They explain that it is not difficult for an officer to know if the person is sleeping. They say that discussing the legitimacy of lethal injection, thus causing the indefinite postponement of executions, is also unfair towards the families of the victims of the condemned". Finally, they explain that the postponement of the lethal injection is requested to let the criminal live longer and the victim's family continue to suffer knowing that the murdered family is still alive and its member is dying. There will always be people who support lethal injection. On the other hand, there are people who do not believe in lethal injection as a method of punishment and death. They argue that “the current use of medically untrained prison personnel to administer lethal injection causes unnecessary pain for those executed. The current use of lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment. “Critics of lethal injection argue that it lacks the necessary safeguards to ensure that inmates are not subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. Prison officials may not be qualified to administer the chemical mixture, they argue, as they are not trained, for example, in finding prisoners' veins to properly insert IV lines." Others argue that the criminal could face cruel punishment and that officers do not have the proper training to know where the criminal is or to inject the drug into the criminal's system. “Critics add that, during medical procedures where anesthesia is used, doctors measure precise dosages. Many prison officials, however, do not take into account how much they consume and charge, causing poor anesthesia for prisoners." This explains that the officers are not well trained to administer the injection because they do not know how much anesthesia is in the person's body and whether that person is sleeping in another so as not to suffer at the momentof his death. “A large dose of anesthetic alone would be enough to kill and would be less likely to cause pain, critics argue. But opponents point out that its administration would take much longer than using the three-drug combination.” Finally, they believe that anesthesia is a better method of death because a large amount will cause painless death and they also know that it will take longer to reach death. Lethal injection is a very controversial topic because of the 8th amendment where people use to claim that prisoners receive unnecessary punishment while administering lethal injection.injection. Lethal injection has been popular since the beginning because it has been the predominant method of executing criminals. “The way prisoners are executed is changing. In America and a growing number of other countries, lethal injection has become the most commonly used form of capital punishment, replacing other forms such as hanging and the electric chair. Between 1977 and 1982, the years immediately following the reinstatement of the death penalty, a total of two executions occurred. In 2004 there were 59 executions. The vast majority of these executions were by lethal injection. On December 2, 2005, Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th person to be executed since 1977. In 2009, 25 people were executed in 11 states.” Lethal injection has increased over the years to become the method used for the death penalty. These are scary numbers because they demonstrate that lethal injection is the number one solution when it comes to executions. The use of three drugs for lethal injection has been questioned because it shows that injection takes longer than it should during executions. This also explains that the FDA is not approving the tri-drug drug or the cocktail drug because it shows that this drug is no longer what it used to be. “Approximately two-thirds of states use a combination of barbiturate, paralytic, and toxic agents in executions, despite a lack of scientific evidence to support their effectiveness. While the procedure may be subject to FDA approval, the agency has avoided any ruling on the cocktail's effectiveness in bringing about a merciful death. A shortage of sodium thiopental, a fast-acting barbiturate and general anesthetic used in lethal injections of death row inmates, has delayed several such executions in the United States and reignited a long-standing debate over the combination of chemicals used to carry out the capital punishment. ”. The government is considering changing the chemicals used in lethal injection because it believes the process is unusual and cruel for criminals. “As lawsuit challenging Tennessee's new lethal injection procedure goes to trial.” This also explains the fact that lethal injection is questioned because it is causing pain to criminals. The United States is one of the predominant countries that still uses capital punishment for executions. “The United States and Japan are the two remaining industrial democracies whose justice systems execute prisoners. To date, 3,095 prisons are on death row in 35 states” (Kroll, 2014). "Perhaps to appear more civilized and to address the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, Oklahoma's then-state medical examiner, Dr. Jay Chapman, proposed in 1977, after Gilmore's execution, that prisoners could have been dispatched using a lethal intravenous cocktail of therapeutically useful drugs. The purpose of these drugs is twofoldfirst, they are used to induce death in the most painless way possible for the condemned. Secondly, the drug combination is also intended for the public to see the process as peaceful and medical, without any body contraction, vocalizations, or any reflex actions that may still occur while one is unconscious. The three types of drugs and their purposes, as originally proposed and used in the order, are as follows: a sedative drug to make the condemned person lose consciousness (barbiturates such as sodium thiopental or pentobarbital). A neuromuscular blocking drug causes paralysis of all muscles except the heart (such as pancuronium or vecuronium bromide). A lethal dose of potassium chloride stops the heart." After 1977 they created the drug cocktail to administer the drug through the drug in vain and to make death quick. They used barbiturates, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride to create the use of the drug in injection to cause death to the criminal and the purpose of its creation was to help criminals die painlessly. The last moments of the criminal or murderer are difficult because it is the last time he will see his family and the world. “In the last 24 hours before execution, a prisoner may be visited by several people, including family, friends, lawyers and spiritual advisors. These visits take place in the death watch area or in a special visiting room and are discontinued on the last day.” “Last meal is provided - Prisons try to provide whatever meal the condemned person requests. Visit by the warden and chaplain - The warden and the state-appointed chaplain visit the prisoner and remain there until the end of the execution. Arrival of witnesses - No contact between witnesses and the convicted person is permitted. Witnesses are generally confined to the witness room adjacent to the execution chamber and are instructed to remain silent. Prisoner makes final preparations - In some states, male prisoners are given a new pair of pants and shirt, female prisoners are given a dress, and the prisoner is allowed to shower before dressing. In other states, the inmate must remove all outer clothing. A heart rate monitor is connected - The inmate is connected to an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine, which will be monitored on a flat line to determine when the heart stops and death has occurred.” How they die may vary from state to state. It's incredible, but I didn't know that women were sentenced to death. This is new to me because I didn't know they put a heart rate monitor on the criminal to determine when he dies. This is a different perspective because it was never the prisoner asking for the lethal injection that was the death. Now, people don't want to be in prison, they want to die instead. “The convicted Nevada inmate, set to die from a three-drug lethal injection combination never before used in the United States, has said repeatedly that he wants his sentence to be carried out and that he doesn't care if it is painful” (Ritter , 2018). “I have been very clear about my desire to be executed… even if suffering is inevitable. “Life in prison is not a life,” the 47-year-old inmate told the newspaper. “It's just about surviving.” The psychologist diagnosed Dozier with antisocial personality disorder with narcissistic traits. Dozier has suspended all appeals of his conviction and sentence. Because Nevada is using a combination of drugs that no one has ever used before, there are many things in its protocol that we know nothing about. The last execution in Nevada occurred more than a decade ago, when Daryl Linnie Mack asked to be put to death.
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