Is the death penalty a truly 'humanitarian' execution execution method?

by Sara Bakhshi

In Japan, hanging is adopted in the death penalty, but in the United States numerous states are taking penalty punishments using drugs. According to Deborah Denno of Fordham University, the death penalty has been adopted because it was claimed to be "humanitarian", but in reality it is said that it is "not violent than electric chairs and shooting deaths" It is said that there is nothing. Popular Science summarizes the current situation that the way of death penalty is changing.

As states scramble to find execution drugs, experts say it's time to let lethal injection die | Popular Science
https://www.popsci.com/execution-lethal-injection-alternative-humane

In the actual case of the death penalty execution, Carey Dean Moore who received the death sentence as killing two taxi drivers, firstly received a large amount of diazepam , also known as anxiolytic, loses consciousness, Fendering analgesic fentanyl and cisatracurium besylate to cure the body and stop breathing were administered. And 23 minutes later Moore was sentenced to death. Those who saw this situation mentioned that Moore's face turned red first, then turned purple, and the moving chest stopped, but we do not complain about the death penalty was. Joel Zivot, Professor of Anesthesiology at Emory University, said: "Death row prisoners fall asleep and they seem to be dead." "But the inside of the body is burning, this is a matter of death penalty. It is designed for the public eye "and hides that poison is committing cells under the skin."

by PhotoLizM

"We can not conduct experiments to ascertain which punishment method is cruel but I am well aware that punishment is cruel.I know the chemical substances used for drug punishment and their effects well I have studied a series of autopsies and I have seen that the organs are in dysfunction.I have seen death row prisoners where liquid accumulated in the lungs and death row prisoners whose heart and liver enlarged, " Mr. Zivot.

Also, because medicines such as diazepam and fentanyl were used in medicine punishment, these reputations got worse, so the pharmaceutical companies sometimes tried to avoid using their medicine for executions. Because of this, it is difficult for the state to get the same medicine again when the state's medicine stock for the death penalty is gone, but if you use medications you have never used before instead, you can successfully execute the death penalty There is also the risk of being lost. In addition, in recent years it is becoming a situation that it is difficult to obtain alternative medicines themselves.

The option left in the state where medicines are no longer available is whether to defer executions themselves or to execute the death penalty in other ways until drugs are available. Many states tend to choose the latter and South Carolina passed a bill allowing the Senate to use electric chairs instead of drugs in the spring of 2017 in the State of South Carolina. This bill was rejected by the House of Representatives, but it is said that there is a possibility that it will be raised again at the next legislation parliament. Although it is not actually used as a death penalty method in recent years, in the United States there are five provinces that recognize the electric chair, three provinces that recognize the firing sincerity exist, others there are states hanging or gas is approved .

by Jason Leung

However, despite the claim that "the punishment sentence is cruel as well as the other death penalty methods", the tendency that despotic punishment is preferred to other death sentences still continues. There seems to be a place where medicines are obtained from overseas or unauthorized organizations in some states where medicine is scarce. Meanwhile, the state where the medicine has not been successfully acquired searches for another method of death, many of whom do not have the idea of ​​"abolish the death penalty". In the State of South Carolina, a total of 282 death sentences have been executed since 1912, but due to lack of medicine the death penalty has not been carried out after 2011 and as of 2018, 36 sentenced death sentences are held punishable Has become. Senator William Timmons, a former prosecutor who suggested the introduction of an electric chair, says, "I do not like electric chair, but if the death penalty is going to take place in South Carolina, I must carry out that obligation." I said.

However, even though an electric chair is permitted by law, it seems highly likely that the death penalty by electric chairs will not actually be carried out from historic circumstances. On the other hand, the possibility of being adopted by supporters of the death penalty is "shooting firing".

by Jabbacake

According to Mr. Denno, "Evidence shows that the shooting punishment is humanitarian." Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court stated that firing punishment is preferable to mediation punishment and in the future "This kind of visible but less painful violence is" not visible, but severe It may be preferred over a painful "death penalty."

In this way, a method that is an alternative to a medicine punishment is being examined, but as of 2018, about 54% of prospective factions about the pros and cons of the death penalty itself. In 2016, the number of favorors was 49%, so the number has increased slightly, but since it was 78% in 1996, it is on a downward trend overall.

In the United States at the time of article creation, 31 states admit the death penalty, but since the death penalty was executed in the past 5 years among them several states, "It is only a matter of time before the death penalty will be abolished" Denno He is watching. However, until that time, it is likely that each state will decide to proceed with the death penalty by reveling out the argument that "the punishment is cruel", or to restore the past death penalty methods and ignite the bashing from the people.