Death Penalty #3

I think that some of the methods used for capital punishment are cruel and unusual. One of them is hanging. Since the website says “instantaneous death rarely occurs” and “If this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop, the body defecates, and violent movements of the limbs occur” I would consider this a cruel and unusual punishment. I think that the use of a firing squad is also an inhumane way to kill someone. Pinning a target on some ones heart and having 5 people shoot him while he bleeds to death slowly seems very brutal. Electrocution is not used in any states but Nebraska who recently declared it “cruel and unusual” the website says that the prisoner’s “hands often grip the chair and there may be violent movement of the limbs which can result in dislocation or fractures. The tissues swell. Defecation occurs. Steam or smoke rises and there is a smell of burning”. I would consider this torture especially because they continue the electrocution process over and over until the prisoner’s heartbeat stops. The gas chamber has been proven to be an inhuman form of death, even from the holocaust, it is known that death by gas is a slow and painful death. It is not immediate and is a slow suffocation. I think that all these ways are very inhumane and should be considered “cruel and unusual”. I think that lethal injection should be the only route taken when it comes to capital punishment since it puts the prisoner in the least amount of discomfort.

Texas has the highest number of executions; it surpasses the rest of the states with 451 and currently has 342 people on death row. Only 6 states have killed women with a total of 11 women being killed using the death penalty. 14 states do not have the death penalty entirely, including Hawaii and Alaska. California has the most people on death row with 690 but only has 13 executions. Illinois has 15 people on death row and has killed ­­12. While 22 inmates have been executed for crimes they committed while under the age of 18, but, in Roper v. Simmons it was decided that executing someone from a crime they committed as a minor was cruel and unusual punishment. It depends on the state but its seems like more Blacks are on death row then Whites and definitely more minorities are on death row then Whites.  Lethal injection is the most commonly used method of execution. Illinois has life with out parole and the governor has the ability to grant clemency. There was a moratorium imposed on executions because there were many mistakes in the system and Anthony Porter was hours away from being executed when he found innocent. When looking at this data I noticed that there are considerably more executions and people on death row in the south. Additionally the only states that have no death penalty are located in the North. Texas and California use the death penalty more then any other state. I think that, taking population into account, if the ratio of death cases is considerably different between states that something should be done to make the punishment of execution more regulated. There should be guidelines so people aren’t disproportionately or unfairly given capital punishment.

It is interesting that 15 people were given the death penalty when it was a while person killing a black person, but 246 black people have been given the death penalty for killing white men. It should also be noted that 130 people were taken off death row and their innocence was revealed, with those numbers how many were sentenced to die while actually being innocent? Capital punishment does not deter murders. The South accounts for 80% of the murders and they have the highest execution and death row rates. In California it costs the state $250 million for each execution but keeping convicts in life in prison costs much less. Execution is an expensive solution to the problem of criminals and crime prevention. The money could be better used to make schools function better and for them to promote crime prevention programs so that kids in high risk areas don’t resort to killing and end up in the place where their lives are on trial.  

Death Penalty #1: Clifford Boggess

In general I disagree with the death penalty and feel like killing people for killing people is pointless and accomplishes nothing.

In the case of Clifford Boggess I think he should not have been executed. Clifford had a traumatizing childhood being put up for adoption, his parents getting divorced and then being given away again by his adoptive parents. He was not a murderer by nature, but society failing him and the lack of nurture he received turned him into a murderer. He wanted to go to college and have a successful life but when road blocks got in his way he had no family to turn to for money and no one who loved him so instead he resorted to killing people so he could have the life he wanted. Clifford did not have any resources or support like the rest of us have to help us get through hard times in our lives even his uncle, who wasn’t a saint himself, would bash Clifford and say he was an awful human being. Can anyone really survive a childhood like Clifford’s without turning out harmed in some way?

Although Clifford struggled with and somewhat forced his religion towards the end of his life he found a love for painting and expressing himself through an outlet rather than letting his anger come out. I don’t think he could be a functioning member of society but in the many years he spent in prison he did manage to control and focus his anger on something that bettered the community and himself.

Clifford Boggess, like anyone else, does not deserve to die. Just because the system failed Clifford doesn’t mean they should kill him. Despite the setbacks in his life he was able to improve the life he was given and focus the negatives in his life into something good. I think a more fitting punishment for Clifford Boggess is life in prison without the possibility of parole. We can’t fight against murderers by doing the same thing we condemn them for and expect the anger in our society to cease. There needs to be a better way to make sure children are not failed and are given the proper tools to lead a healthy regular life.