1/31/11

An execution for punishment due to a serious crime a person has committed is known as the Death Penalty, or also Capital Punishment. No punishment is worse than the death penalty. The death penalty has won over the approval of 35 states in the United States, but some set limits to only a few number of offenses that can send a criminal to the death penalty, such as, murder and treason. Each of these states turn to lethal injection as their primary mode of execution because it does not violate the eighteenth amendment's ban of cruelty and unusual punishment.

There have been 1065 people that have been executed using lethal injection since 1976. Also, sentencing a criminal to the death penalty could cost up to millions of dollars. Lethal injections do not last long. After each drug is injected into the body, it is then flushed with saline to increase the rate of effect. The criminals are strapped down with an IV inserted into their body in which the drugs will flow through. There are three steps, in which the criminal has to go through while receiving the death penalty.


Lethal injection leaves it's victim unaware of what is going on; it is simply painless. For this to happen, a drug is injected into the victim, leaving them unconscious to where they do not understand, or feel, what is happening. This happens to be the first drug, Sodium Thiopental, used and is directed towards the criminal's nervous system to shut it down, thus putting them in the unconscious state. Secondly, Pancuronium Bromide is injected into the victim's body. This drug blocks the nerve messages that get sent to the muscles in the body, forbidding them to act. Eventually, the respiratory muscles shut down, enabling the victim to breath. The last injection is called Potassium Chloride, which stops the heart from beating.


Death penalty info. (2008, December). Retrieved from http://www.cjlf.org/deathpenalty/DPinformation.htm

Facts about the death penalty. (2011, January 26). Retrieved from http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf

Lethal injection. (2010, December 31). Retrieved from http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/injection.html