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Bioethics: Death Penalty

Methods :
 * **Method** || *** of executions by method since 1976 || *** of states authorizing method || **Jurisdictions that Authorize** ||
 * **Lethal Injection** || 980 || 35 states + U.S. Military and U.S. Gov't || [|Alabama], [|Arizona], [|Arkansas], [|California], [|Colorado],[|Connecticut], [|Delaware], [|Florida], [|Georgia], [|Idaho], [|Illinois], [|Indiana], [|Kansas], [|Kentucky], [|Louisiana], [|Maryland], [|Mississippi], [|Missouri], [|Montana], [|Nevada], [|New Hampshire], [|New Mexico], [|North Carolina], [|Ohio], [|Oklahoma], [|Oregon], [|Pennsylvania], [|South Carolina], [|South Dakota], [|Tennessee], [|Texas], [|Utah], [|Virginia], [|Washington], [|Wyoming], [|U.S. Military], [|U.S. Government] ||
 * **Electrocution** || 155 || 9 states || [|Alabama], [|Arkansas], [|Florida], [|[Illinois]], [|Kentucky], [|[Oklahoma]], [|South Carolina], [|Tennessee], [|Virginia] ||
 * **Gas Chamber** || 11 || 5 states (all have lethal injection as an alternative method) || [|Arizona], [|California], [|Maryland], [|Missouri], [|[Wyoming]] ||
 * **Hanging** || 3 || 2 states (all have lethal injection as an alternative method) || [|New Hampshire], [|Washington] ||
 * **Firing Squad** || 2 || 2 states (all have lethal injection as an alternative method) || [|Idaho], [|[Oklahoma]], [|Utah**]
 * Utah offers the firing squad only for inmates who chose this method prior to its elimination as an option. ||

Lethal Injection Long tubes connect the needle through a hole in a cement block wall to several intravenous drips. The first is a harmless saline solution that is started immediately. Then, at the warden's signal, a curtain is raised exposing the inmate to the witnesses in an adjoining room. Then, the inmate is injected with sodium thiopental - an anesthetic, which puts the inmate to sleep. Next flows pavulon or pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and stops the inmate's breathing. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart. Death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious. (Ecenbarger, 1994 and Weisberg, 1991) Medical ethics preclude doctors from participating in executions. However, a doctor will certify the inmate is dead. **Electrocution** the person is usually shaved and strapped to a chair with belts that cross his chest, groin, legs, and arms. A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline. The sponge must not be too wet or the saline short-circuits the electric current, and not too dry, as it would then have a very high resistance. **Hanging** For execution by this method, the inmate may be weighed the day before the execution, and a rehearsal is done using a sandbag of the same weight as the prisoner. This is to determine the length of 'drop' necessary to ensure a quick death. If the rope is too long, the inmate could be decapitated, and if it is too short, the strangulation could take as long as 45 minutes. The rope, which should be 3/4-inch to 1 1/4-inch in diameter, must be boiled and stretched to eliminate spring or coiling. The knot should be lubricated with wax or soap "to ensure a smooth sliding action," according to the 1969 U.S. Army manual. **Gas Chamber** The prisoner is instructed to breathe deeply to speed up the process. Most prisoners, however, try to hold their breath, and some struggle. The inmate does not lose consciousness immediately. According to former San Quenton, California, Penitentiary warden, Clifton Duffy, "At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool." **Firing Squad** the inmate is typically bound to a chair with leather straps across his waist and head, in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall. The chair is surrounded by sandbags to absorb the inmate's blood. A black hood is pulled over the inmate's head. A doctor locates the inmate's heart with a stethoscope and pins a circular white cloth target over it. Standing in an enclosure 20 feet away, five shooters are armed with .30 caliber rifles loaded with single rounds. One of the shooters is given blank rounds. Each of the shooters aims his rifle through a slot in the canvas and fires at the inmate. the death penalty is legal in 94 countries including the US.

Cos t :

Death Penalty - Its about 63.3 million annually. The cost for this is more expensive in California, Texas and Washington

Prison - $90,000 a year for one person.

How do people get on death row? Texas: In Texas, a person must be of at least 18 years of age at the time of the crime to have the death penalty imposed upon him or her[|2].
 * murder of a public safety officer or firefighter in the line of duty
 * murder during the commission of specified felonies (kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated rape, arson)
 * murder for remuneration
 * multiple murders
 * murder during prison escape
 * murder of a correctional officer
 * murder of a judge
 * murder by a state prison inmate who is serving a life sentence for any of five offenses; [or]
 * murder of an individual under six years of age[|1].

**TOTAL NUMBER OF DEATH ROW INMATES IN THE USA:** **3,350** **Race of Defendant:** White 1,517 (45.28%) Black 1,397 (41.70%) Latino/Latina 359 (10.72%) Native American 37 ( 1.10%) Asian 39 ( 1.16%) Unknown at this issue 1 ( .03%) **Gender:** Male 3,291 (98.24%) Female 59 ( 1.76%) **Juveniles:*** Male 1 ( .03%) (* NOTE: On March 1, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court determined in //Roper v. Simmons//that it is unconstitutional to execute a person for a crime committed when that person was under the age of 18. Juveniles whose death sentences were vacated by court order or other official action before January 1, 2007 have been removed from the state rosters. One remains, with his name in brackets.) - Pennsylvania (70%) - Texas (69%)
 * J****urisdictions (having 10 or more inmates) with the****highest percent of minorities on death row**

- California (660) - Florida (397) - Texas (393) - Pennsylvania (226)
 * Jurisdictions with the most inmates on death row:**

Pros : **Safety:** Criminals who receive the death penalty are typically violent individuals. Therefore for the safety of the prison’s guards, other prisoners, and the general public (in case a death row inmate escapes prison).

Cons : Someone was proven guilty when they were innocent.

 point of views : "I think it's a wonderful thing because this is a great deterrent to anybody else who thinks about doing a crime like this," said Brian Sanderholm, father of murdered teen Jodi Sanderholm. "That's what the system is about."  Parents of Chelsea Brooks also argue they're glad there was an option of the death penalty for the killers of their daughter.   You can't put a price on justice, prosecutors will argue. And even if you could, there's no proof that death costs more than life. "No one really knows what the cost is, you can't say definitively that it's more expensive to have the death penalty," said Kris Ailslieger with the Kansas Attorney General's office. "I watched the execution and I really realized you know what, this really isn't going to bring me closure," she said. Sites: http://library.thinkquest.org/23685/data/toolsvec.html http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/methods.htm