Death Penalty And The Eighth Amendment :: essays research papers

Death Penalty and The Eighth AmendmentThe expression an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth has taken on a whole newmeaning. Lately, murderers have been getting a punishment equal to their crime,death. In 1967, executions in the United States were temporarily suspended togive the federal appellate courts time to decide whether or not the deathpenalty was unconstitutional. Then, in 1972, the United States Supreme motor inngovern in the case of Furman versus Georgia that the death penalty violatedthe Eight Amendments. According to the Eighth Amendment, Excessive bail shallnot be required, no unjustified fines imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishmentsinflicted. After the Supreme Court made this ruling, states reviewed theirdeath penalty laws. In 1976, in the case of Gregg versus Georgia the SupremeCourt ruled state death penalty laws were not unconstitutional. Presently inthe United States the death penalty offer only be used as punishment forintentional killing. Still, the death pe nalty violates the Eighth Amendment andshould be outlawed in the United States.Currently in the United States there are quintuplet methods used for executingcriminals the electric chair, gas chamber, lethal injection, hanging, andfiring squad, each of them equally cruel and unusual in there own ways.When a someone is sentenced to death by electrocution he strapped to achair and electrodes are attached to his head and leg. The amount of voltage israised and lowered a hardly a(prenominal) times and death is supposed to occur within threeminutes. one-third whole minutes with electricity flowing through someones body,while his flesh burns. Three minutes may not seem like a very long time, but tosomeone who is waiting for his body to die, three minutes can feel like aneternity.Three minutes is the approximate time it takes for a person to die ifeverything goes right, but in some cases it takes longer for people to die. In1990, Jesse Tafero, a prisoner in Florida, remained conscious f or four minuteswhile witnesses watched ashes fall from his head. In Georgia in 1984, it tooknearly twenty minutes for important Otis Stephens to die. At 1218 am on December12, he was shocked with electricity for two minutes, and his body still showedsigns of life. The doctors had to wait six minutes to examine his body becauseit was too hot to touch. Stephens was still alive, so he was electrocuted foranother two minutes. Finally at 1237 am doctors pronounced him dead.When a person is executed in the gas chamber he is strapped to a chair