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By Elizabeth Alcala and Rishik Reddy Ummareddy
Midazolam: A Killer Anesthetic
You, on your deathbed, invite death, waiting at your doorstep.
The very anesthetic that was injected into you, however, fills fluid in your lungs.​
But you are locked to your bed by unbreakable shackles.
Even before the poison is administered, you take your last, conscious breath.
A needle, filled with midazolam penetrates your skin.
Trying to tell the executioner, who is preparing the poison that will stop your breathing and your heart, you flail about.
It is too hard to breathe, you give in.
These events are what Robert Van Hook went through on the day of his execution by lethal injection in Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, Lucasville. When studying his autopsy, Dr. Mark Edgar found that the man had similar symptoms of victims of waterboarding. This was concerning to the Doctor, revealing a major fault in the lethal injection method. This would ignite a conversation of ethics in the world of capital punishment that does not have a definitive answer. This topic correlates to the UN SDG 16, which calls for peace and justice.
Source: Liliana Segura of The Intercept
The PAST Shapes the FUTURE
There are five main types of executions that were utilized from the 1980s to the present year, 2020.
Starting with the most ancient and crude methods in the form of death by the noose. The method was used very little as the ethics of the death penalty became a popular topic in the public around the 1950s after World War II.
Similar crude forms, such as firing squads, gassing, and electrocutions also dropped in popularity due to the prolonged pain they could cause to the convicted.
As the electric chair became more readily available and less expensive than gassing, the use of toxic chemicals to kill the convicted plummeted. Lethal injection rose to popularity because of how painless the procedure was.
How does this compare globally? As of now, there are 14 countries than are accepting towards capital punishment, otherwise, known as the death penalty. The United States itself has executed 1,512 people since 1976 but the numbers seem to be decreasing yearly coming to 22 executions in 2019. Some countries, however, are not willing to disclose their true statistics on the death penalty like China and Saudi Arabia. Estimations put China in the lead with the most amount of executions in the thousands. These scattered answers and ill-reported data will only make the question of ethics behind the death penalty harder to answer in the long run. As talks on the matter escalate, the lives of the many criminals on death row might come to depend on these hidden statistics.
Source: CNN and World Population Review
FOR EVERY NINE PEOPLE EXECUTED IN THE US, ONE PERSON HAS BEEN EXONERATED AND FREED FROM DEATH ROW.
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Although the death penalty is still used nationally as punishment for unforgivable crimes, opposition occurs. Many argue that capital punishment is immoral, and can lead to the deaths of innocent people. As time progresses, the death penalty is being reformed in order to ensure a more painless and humane death, and also increase the amount of exoneration.
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Prisoners throughout the US have been wrongfully sentenced to death. Fortunately, several states have exonerated those on death row whom they deem "innocent" of all charges.
44% of exoneration cases included forensic evidence missapplications
possible causes: invalid conclusions based on forensic evidence (usually DNA) or mistakes by scientists
possible causes: non-"blind" lineups, memory gaps, witness stress or trauma, crime scene variables
69% of exoneration cases included false witness identification
States with higher values have exonerated more people, compared to the amount that they have executed. New Mexico, is a clear outlier. The state has exonerated 400% of the amount of prisoners executed.
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Other states, such as Texas and Nevada, have lower values because a much higher amount of prisoners have been executed vs exonerated in that state.
possible causes: fabricated testimony, jailhouse informants promised a reward for cooperation, incentive to lie
possible causes: use of force and/or intimidation during interrogation, fear, compromised reasoning
28% of exoneration cases included false confessions
17% of exoneration cases included involved informants
Malcom Alexander
Alexander was charged with aggravated rape, after being falsely identified and provided with inadequate defense
38 years served
Joseph Buffey
Buffey mistakenly plead guilty to raping and robbing an 83 year-old woman when his lawyer told him it would reduce his sentence.
17 years served
Kirk Bloodsworth
After being falsely identified by a witness, Bloodsworth was sentenced to death for killing a young girl. He was later exonerated through DNA testing.
7 years served
Delbert Tibbs
Tibbs was questioned by police for a rape/murder, even though he didn't match the description. The witness changed her mind after seeing his photos and falsely identified Tibbs.
3 years served
Federico M. Macias
Macias was convicted for 2nd degree murder due to the testimony of an informant, who was not prosecuted for the murders in return
9 years served
Sabrina Butler
Butler's baby had a heart murmur and stopped breathing. After attempting to resuscitate him, Butler rushed her son to the hospital where he died. She was arrested and charged with child abuse the next day.
2 years served
Source: Innocence Project & Death Penalty Information Center & NCADP
The project was intended to show the current trends in the death penalty and how they could shape future trends regarding ethical laws enforced by governments in the future. We wanted to stay neutral and just include the data on both sides. Our website was produced not to persuade viewers, but inform. Most of the data used was within the US, as data from other countries may not be 100% accurate.
The death penalty is still a large part of society and we hope it can be opened to future research. The question of, "Is denying one the right to live a justified punishment to any type of crime?" is important as the idea of ethics becomes more relevant. As well, what is the accuracy of lethal injection? Do some, if any, patients feel pain during this method, as opposed to methods used in the past.
PURPOSE FUTURE
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