Problems with modern capitol punishment

THE PROBLEMS WITH

MODERN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

WRITTEN BY:

TOM HATFIELD

Sunday, December 11, 2005



TABLE OF
CONTENTS

OUTLINE

FINAL DRAFT
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION
SECTION II: A HISTORY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
SECTION III: THE OLD METHODS
SECTION IV: THE MODERN METHODS
SECTION V: PROBLEMS HO!
SECTION VI: BACK TO BLADES
SECTION VII: CONCLUSION: LAST WORDS AND FINAL RIGHTS

WORKS CITED




PROBLEMS OF MODERN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT


SECTION I: AN INTRODUCTION TO CAPTIAL PUNISHMENT


         Capital punishment has been a means of punishing criminals since the dawn of government. The death penalty has in some cases been the only means of punishment. Yet, two crimes through the ages have always been punishable by death, murder, and treason. In all cultures to take the life away from another person, meant your life would end. But, since the last century, many nations have resorted to life imprisonment for punishment for murder even treason. To hold someone in a cell for approximately fifty years, paying for their expenses, could very quickly build up over time and with several thousand prisoners, could be very straining on an economy. This world needs a more effective and cheaper method of execution, that still respects all religious rites and laws.
         Current methods of capital punishment are far to costly and ineffective compared to others that either have been used or should be used. They are ineffective because they may not kill instantly or they may not be able to kill enough per day to be effective. You can only use a needle once, fry someone once per night, imprisonment is too costly and too slow, firing squads are too messy.

SECTION II: A HISTORY OF CAPTIAL PUNISHMENT


         In the eighteenth century before the common era, the Babylonian Emperor Hammurabi, had the laws of his country written down on tablets and set around the center square. To ensure that everyone would understand the laws, he sent everyone to a school to learn how to read and write. Hammurabi's Code had the first written death penalty laws. In Hammurabi's Code there were twenty-seven laws that were punishable by death, mainly about ruining another person's reputation. The first law was the only law whews punishment, or the law itself, that still exists today, which is the killing of another person.
         The most likely method of execution for the time would have been beheading. When a person is beheaded, a sword or axe is used to remove a person's head at the base or middle of the neck. This is an effective method of execution, but it severs the head and that violates some religion's laws, because the body is not intact. Also, sometimes the blade does not go through on the first swing. This means that it would take several agonizing swings to remove
a person's head.
         The fourteenth century before the common era Hittite Codes were almost entirely alike the Codes of Hammurabi. The main differences were in laws concerning slaves and punishments. The Hittite codes included many more death penalty crimes than Hammurabi's Code. A speculation on this reason was that the Hittites were more aggressive than the Babylonians.
         In the seventh century before the common era, the Athenians of Greece made their Draconian Codes. These Codes are not that dissimilar to modern American laws. The only difference was the Athenians were having problems with crimes so they made the death penalty the punishment for all crimes. Most of their laws were just the same as modern American and many of the modern nations laws.
         The Roman twelve tablets of the fifth century in the pre-common era dictated how all Roman citizens should behave. The laws were often followed for fear of the horrendous punishments. These punishments included, crucifixion, beating, drowning, impalement or being eaten by animals in the arena.
         By the tenth century, hanging had become the standard method of execution in most of medieval Europe. This mainly affected Briton but beheading drawing and quartering were still practiced. This seems to be the era of torture, where the greatest advances in torture devices were invented or improved upon. Henry VIII alone executed seventy-two thousand people during his reign. During Henry VIII's rule, standard methods of execution were boiling, hanging, beheading, and drawing and quartering (evisceration.)
         Most likely the bloodiest political ruler in the world was Vlad Dracul. Vlad Dracul was born around 1430. After his death in 1476 the Turks gave him the nickname of "Tepes" (pronounced che-pesh) which means "the impaler." This was archived from Vlad's favorite method of execution. During his rise to power in Romania, Vlad Dracul had all the nobles and ruling class impaled, because, he held them responsible for the death of his father. Of the entire group, those he found to be able to work, Vlad had shipped up to Poenari, in Transylvania, to build his castle. Those who survived the terrible conditions, Vlad had impaled.
         Due to Vlad Dracul's actions Romanian policies are as strong and stable as they are. Vlad not only attacked his political enemies, he also attacked his enemies in the church. His assaults were not only on the Roman Catholic Church, but on the Eastern Orthodox Church. Vlad Dracul thought the church that they were not all powerful, thus slowing thoughts of another crusade. Vlad's "Romania for Romanians" policies kicked out foreigners helped stabilize the Romanian economy. He
had hundreds of Saxon (German) merchants impaled solely because they were not Romanian.
         Vlad Dracul was most likely the first ruler to actually enforce sex crime and moral codes on a mass scale. He would often punish an entire village for the acts of one person, just as an example. Many contemporaries of Vlad Dracul, in other countries, belittle Vlad by reducing the number of executions down to four hundred thousand. Many speculations predict well over half a million people executed in Vlad's short reign. To show, Vlad Dracul has the record for most
people executed of a modern ruler. The next person in line is Ivan the Terrible of Russia at a mere ten thousand executions. While Vlad only ruled over a half a million people, he executed well more than that. His refinements in torture and execution sent shock waves through the world at the time.
         Vlad not only had people impaled in various ways, he also had people executed in the manner of their crimes. Some people were roasted and flayed. Others had their heads shoved through holes in a board that covered a large pot and then were boiled to death. He impaled mothers and children together to make it look like the child was nursing at the mother's breast. Many people were impaled sideways so they twitched like frogs. He had three gypsies roasted and the other gypsies had to eat them. Sometimes a child's head was stuffed into a slit made into its mother's breast until it suffocated on its impaled mother. Babies were cooked alive and their mothers were forced to eat them. (E. Miller)
         If a man merely lied, he was not likely to live if the athorities found out. It did not matter who you were, none could escape Vlad Dracul's wrath. As proof of how safe the Romanian territory was, at a crossroads, there was a fountain who's waters were sweet and cool, there was a golden
chalice on a podium for anyone who wanted a drink. But, if you used the cup, you had to put it back, and no one ever even attempted to steal the cup.
         The Guillotine was invented in 1789, in France. The guillotine is a blade fixed into a wooden track that, when released, severs the head in one slice. The blade was made of a heavy steel with a single angled edge. It was named after Dr. Guillotine, who was a member of the French National Assembly, during
the French Revolution. Dr. Guillotine's argument was "however guilty a man might be, death was sufficient punishment, without torture." Guillotine was an anti-torture advocate which was the reason for his support for the guillotine. King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette were executed on th guillotine. The first person to be executed under the Legislative Assembly was Nicolas Jacques Pelletier on April 25th, 1792. The "Reign of Terror" lasted from June 1793 to July 1794. Everyone who opposed the Jacobin's were publicly guillotined in masses. After their overthrow in 1794, they were all guillotined. From then on, the guillotine was no longer used for political terrorism. It was still legal for use in 1967.
         When the British came over to the "new world," they brought with them their methods of execution. The abolitionist movement was started in colonial America. they received major support from Cesare Baccaria's essay "On Crimes and Punishment." In his essay, Baccaria stated "the state has no right to take a person's life." At the end of the eighteenth century Jeremy Bntham began a movement to reduce capital crimes. Those efforts were stalled by England's reaction to the French Revolution.
         A radical abolitionist named Dr. Benimin Rush was a powerful speaker for the movement. He was influenced by Baccaria, and his essay. Dr. Rush said that capital punishment actually increased criminal conduct. He was one of the earliest believers of the "brutality effect." This effect stated that the more people that the state executed, the higher crime rates will be. Obviously this man had never heard of Vlad Dracul and Romania under his reign.
         Dr. Rush gained support from attorney general William Bradford and Benjamin Franklin. Bradford led Pennsylvania to be the first state to consider using the death penalty on first degree murder only.
         While Thomas Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, he was the first to try to limit capital punishment to murder and treason alone.
         In the mid nineteenth century, the abolitionist movement gained great power in the northeast. During this time, many states reduced their number of capital crimes and built state penitentiaries. Pennsylvania was the first state to remove executions from the public eye.
         In 1838 some states started passing laws that prevented crimes from being only death penalty crimes. As a substitute, some states passed laws that gave discretionary death penalty sentences. In 1846 Michigan was the first state to remove the death penalty from all crimes except treason. Soon after Rhode Island and Wisconsin abolished the death penalty in all crimes. By as late as 1963, all the states had abolished mandatory death sentences.
         The abolitionist movement was slowed down by the civil war. Many abolitionists became anti-slavery protesters instead. During this time the electric chair was invented, sometime in the late 1800's. New York built the first functional electric chair in 1888. William Kemmler was the first person to be executed by electric shock in 1890.
         The first half of the twentieth century was known as the "progressive period" of reform. From 1907 through 1917 six states completely outlawed the death penalty, and three limited it to rare and extreme crimes. When World War 1 started, the socialist threat made five of the six states reinstate the death penalty laws by 1920. From 1920 through 1940 the death penalty was in full swing. Cyanide gas chambers were first introduced in 1924. Nevada saw it as a more humane way to execute inmates.
         The reason that the death penalty was brought back to life was because of the writings of the criminologists. The authors argued that the death penalty was necessary to social measure. During prohibition and the depression, the United States executed more people than in any other decade. An average executions of 167 per year over ten years.
         In the 1950's public sentiment turned against the death penalty. Many allied nations either eliminated or limited the death penalty. In 1940 there were one thousand two hundred eighty-nine executions. In the 1950's there were seven hundred fifty executions in the United States. In 1957 the Homicide Act limited the death penalty to murder and only in certain circumstances.
         The last century and a half has seen a sharp reduction of capital crimes. Halfway through the twentieth century Italy, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland had abolished the death penalty. The Netherlands removed the death penalty as early as 1870. Many humanitarian groups all over the world are raving for the abolition of capital punishment.

SECTION III: THE OLD METHODS

         Ever since the invention of capital punishment, people have researched better methods of execution. These people are called penologists. Penology is the study and theory of punishment (American Heritage Dictionary 1030.) Throughout history, and around the world different methods have been used to execute prisoners. In most places, mainly in the aicent world, the best reason for executions is lack of other means of punishment or ideas thereof. Large scale imprisonment costs too much on a nations economy, thus draining the nation into a depression, thus more crimes.
         Beheading is a method of execution most associated with medieval Europe. Yet beheading still continue to this day, primarily in Saudi Arabia. Also, beheading was the standard method of execution in Europe until 1938, in Germany, when it was replaced by the guillotine. When a beheading is carried out, the person to be executed kneels, possibly resting their head on a block. A priest will usually give them their last rights, as in all executions. Then the headsman (a person who is a professional behead-er) will raise their sword or axe, a second will hold the person's hair, and the headsman will swing the blade, severing the head. The person loses consciousness within a few seconds from loss of blood to the brain (http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk). This fact usually makes this type of execution relatively painless. Yet, the deed requires a skilled headsman, and a sharp blade to be carried out effectively. If not, the execution could be very painfully, and take multiple swings to sever the head.
         Everyone knows what its like to get burned, a flash of heat followed by an extremely sharp pain that surges through the body. Imagine that sensation over your entire body, if you could, you would have the execution method of burning at the steak. The practice of burning was used primarily on those convicted of crimes against the church or of witchcraft. Burning was an extremely painful way to be executed, and death usually came from shock. The main purpose of burning would be for an example, to show if you attack the church, this is what happens. Since burning went out of use before the advent of medical science, we do not know the slow and painful effects or time table for the body as we do in beheading.
         Lynching is a method of execution, similar to hanging, but the convict is not hanging from a scaffold, but tied to a post and choked with a rope. The rope is fed through a bored hole in the post about at the person's neck, then a slip-knot is tied in the rope, the lead end is pulled, pinning the person between the post and the rope. This eventually lead to the death of the person form asphyxia. The good and bad part about lynching is that there is almost no chance of the neck breaking, thus the subject must endure until death.
         Drawing and quartering is just a fancy euphemism for evisceration. How such practices are carried out is the subject is strangled or hung until they pass out from lack of oxygen. Then they are strapped to a table and their bellies are cut open with a dull knife. When this happens the person almost immediately snaps awake from unconsciousness and they begin to scream in pain. The would-be surgeon then reaches in and begins pulling out organs and displaying them to the crowd. After removing and displaying an organ, it is thrown into a fire to be burned. All the victims organs are removed and burned in such manner. The person usually does not die very quickly because there is almost no blood lost, they eventually may pass out and die from shock or any major, life essential organ is removed.
         Crucifixion is a method of execution that the Romans most likely invented. It entails a person being nailed to a "t" looking object made of wood. The executee is usually paraded around town and beaten before pretty much hung up to dry, as the phrase would say. Death came mainly from over exposure or thirst, possibly hunger, unless the wounds were so great they bled out, or shot with some missile. Death could come in anywhere from a few hours to a few days to a week. There are old Roman stories of people on the cross talking to each other passing the time until death.
         Hanging was the standard operational procedure of execution until the electric chair was invented. To be hung you needed a gallows, or a scaffold to stand on before pushed off and hung by the neck by a rope that was tied to a shaft above. Death could come in one of two ways, when the trap door was opened or you were shoved off the scaffold, the sudden jerk of the rope could break your neck, most favorable, least likely. The other way was that you would squirm and struggle until you passed out and eventually died of asphyxiation, least favorable, yet most likely.
         I am sure everyone has either seen or has boiled water before, either for noodles or eggs or what have you. Imagine if you were the noodle or the egg. Sitting in the water as the temperature starts to rise, until you can feel the bubbles coming up from the sides of the pot. Finally the water comes to a rolling boil and soon you are most literally cooked alive (human broth anyone?) Boiling is a most excruciating method of dieing. Depending on how much water is used and how cold the water and air temperature are it can take as long as half an hour to get the water to boil. At about one hundred fifty degrees the skin will start to loosen and become thinner. At about one hundred seventy degrees the water becomes too high to be tolerated for humans. Finally at two hundred twelve degrees the water boils and you die a horrible and painful death.
         Now then, there should be no confusion between drawing and quartering, and true evisceration Drawing and quartering is usually saved for criminals, whereas evisceration is used on the battle field on prisoners of war. Drawing and quartering has a certain finesse to it. Yet in evisceration, it is done as quickly as possible so you can move on to the next victim. In evisceration you are doing virtually the same thing as in drawing and quartering, but instead of a simple incision, you would cut a large hole in the person and remove the internal organs, either toss them aside or throw them in a fire. Then the body is tossed aside or passed off to be impaled or whatever the general requires.
         Speaking of impaling, impalement has to be, the most painful way to be executed. Again we turn to Vlad Dracul as our source for impaling advice. The most painful way to impale someone, is to shove the shaft up their anus, or somewhere close to there, and put the point (or lack thereof) at about the middle of the torso, just as long it misses the heart. Other methods are to impale through the lower back, causing faster death and more of a picture. To impale through the side and watch them squirm and twitch like frogs (great family entertainment!) Impaling a person upside-down would pull the body down faster, thus causing death faster, and that is the opposite of what impalement is all about.

SECTION IV: THE MODERN METHODS


         The guillotine, as stated before was a quick and virtually painless method of execution. There is still the problem of gushing blood everywhere as in beheading but, most of the gushing is stopped by the blade. French guillotines had two uprights of approximately fourteen feet nine inches high and fifteen inches apart, with metal lined grooves to ensure free movement of the triangular shaped weighted blade which ran on a four wheeled carriage. The substantial frame is set perfectly level using spirit levels after the guillotine is erected, to prevent the blade jamming (http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/guillotine.html.) Every guillotine was constructed in this manner
         The firing squad is an adaption on the old soldier's execution, soldiers executing their comrade While the civilians had hanging, the soldiers had firing squads. Many of the former and current communist countries have firing squads if not for everyone at least the military, or have abolished the death penalty all together. several problems arise from firing squads; first, finding suitable volunteers to actually shoot thier friend. Second, finding a suitable place where no one else will be shot by accident. Finally, finding a location that can get a little bloody.
         Electric shock is the second most commonly used method today to execute prisoners. The electric chair was first used in New York in 1888, and first used it in 1890. The basic principal is a person is strapped with leather belts to a chair, a helmet is put on their head with electrodes on their head, then a electro-gel is placed on the head (to increase conductivity) then the executioner pushes the button and a ten thousand volt shock flows through the body. A major problem with the electric chair is that it costs a lot of electricity, which costs money, to use and the subject may not die, there are stories of people surviving the electric shock. This is the reason that the United States passed a law that says that you may only be shocked once, if you survive, you have served your sentence.
         The gas chamber was invented for use in Nevada because the Nevada government thought the electric chair was inhumane. What the gas chamber is, is a large bell shaped airtight room that has a chair with straps, similar to the electric chair, but without the plug ins. The convict is strapped in and a can of cyanide gas is opened behind them. Then the person chokes to death on the toxic gas. The choking is described as worse than being strangled. So much for being more humane.
         Finally, the execution method you've all been waiting for, lethal injection. Lethal injection started as giving the subject an instant super-overdose of methenphenamine. The injection consisted of six different forms of meth injected at once. Now the injections consist of three different chemicals injected separately, with the cathador flushed with salience manually inject the three chemicals comprising typically 15 - 50 cc of Sodium thiopental, 15 - 50 cc of Pavulon (the generic name for Pancuronium bromide) and 15 - 50 cc of Potassium chloride. There is a short interval between each chemical during which saline solution is injected to clean the IV line (http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/injection.html.)

SECTION V: PROBLEMS HO!
         
         The main problem with all modern methods of execution is cost. All the abolitionists who are screaming for the illegalization of the death penalty, most likely do not realize how much it really costs to hold someone in prison for roughly fifty years. They most likely also do not realize where that money comes from, and that would raise taxes, on the state and federal levels, by a huge amount. All this, for what, so a person can sit and rot in an eight by ten cell for the rest of their life and we get to pay for it.
         Life imprisonment is most likely the most torturous method of punishment in existence Indefinite imprisonment also costs a fortune, for one prisoner, over twenty-five years costs over a million dollars, before inflation. That is money directly coming out of your pocket. The average time of a life imprisonment is around fifty years, which costs you fifty million dollars, multiply that by hundreds of inmates, costs as much as a day of an average war.
         The electric chair is beginning to fade into in existence by the lethal injection. Though it is still an option for the criminal to decide. The electric chair as previously noted, requires a lot of electricity, so the only time an execution may happen is in the middle of the night when electricity usage is at a minimum. The execution often causes several blackouts in many grids in the city of the prison. All this electricity has to be paid by someone, yep you guessed it, the citizens of the state. Its all a grand conspiracy, its a way for the power companies to get richer The electric shocks can cause a great deal of pain to the person being executed before their hart palpitates and they die.
         Lethal injection seems to be the cheapest, but again you have no idea if the convict is actually feeling pain because of the paralyzing and unconsciousness injections. Although, some people who either did not receive the paralysis or unconsciousness injections or they had no effect, complained of extreme pain between the time of injection and time of death, which can take several minuets. It was recorded that it took one man forty five minuets to die, and he was complaining of extreme pain the entire time.

SECTION VI: BACK TO BLADES

         Why should we go back to blades you ask? Well when a blade is your method of execution, you only have to pay for it once, then the blade can be cleaned and used again and again. The only upkeep it needs is to be cleaned and sharpened. With a bladed execution you can execute more people per day than you can with lethal injection or the electric chair. With lethal injection, you have to pay for everything to be shipped in and the drugs themselves cost money. Also the electric chair can only be used at maximum once a night, as not to shut down the power plant.
         Well then, as for a bladed execution, the best method is not a beheading, for that takes time and practice to be a good headsman. A beheading also destroys the body, which in many religions, is a serious no-no. It is best that you insert the blade, at about mid-neck, straight through to the other side, making sure that you do not hit either the jugular or the carotid, as doing this would make serious amounts of bloodshed. Thrusting a blade here would result in the severing of the spinal column and instinatius, painless death. The blade used for execution must be longer than six inches, and does not need to be longer than eight inches. Also it need not be wider than one inch but wider than one half inch. It needs to have a very fine, razor sharp point. For executioners, you can use inmates that are waiting their turn to be executed, or virtually anyone can preform this procedure, you just need the nerve and guts to do it.
         Now then the standard executional procedure of an inmate, the night or day before, inmates choice, they may receive guidance from a religious leader of their faith, and legal council from their lawyers. Then the night before their execution they may have their last meal, consisting of anything they want, up to a cost limit determined by the state, or nation. Then the next day they are brought out, into the execution room from there they are read their crimes and given the states last rights and their religious last rights. The convicted are given their chance to make their last statement. Then they tip their executioner the best they can and they are killed. Why should we have this standard executional procedure; because it puts things at a standard and not just at lets do this so the inmates can complain. Also if any part is skipped then the inmates estate would have the right to sue for violations.





SECTION VII: CONCLUSION:
LAST WORDS, AND FINAL RIGHTS

         In conclusion, modern methods of execution are just too costly and ineffective to be in use. To those who think these methods are barbaric and we should just imprison people for the rest of their lives, when you can cough up the million plus dollars to imprison one person for twenty-five years, for all the inmates, then by all means do so. To those people who think the methods we have right now are just fine, then when you pay for all the needles, and the serenes and the toxins and the doctor's fees, by all means do so. Then you pay for the electricity that it takes to fry up one of the convicts, by all means do so. Because if America knew how much it costs to do all this, then they would be screaming the same things I am.