Persuasive speech- Grade: A (95%) PDF

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Essay (in speaking format) on Lethal injection in regards to the death penalty...

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If you were sentenced to death, (Pause) How would you want to die? (Pause) In 8th grade, I was given the task of writing a speech similar to this and I chose the topic of the Death Penalty. I wrote this speech primarily against the death penalty with a few exceptions. For these few exceptions I said if the death penalty had to happen then it should be done in the most humane way possible, lethal injection. I thought lethal injection would be the best option because I thought of it similar to the majority of people across the world as it being the equivalent to “putting a dog to sleep”. Essentially a harmless way where they feel no pain and its similar to an anesthesiologist putting you to sleep before surgery. Fast forward 6 years later, and after taking biology this year and doing some research I determined “putting a dog to sleep” is very different than lethal injection. Many Americans believe that we need to use the death penalty but not all know the full implications that they have, or which is the best method. According to a Gallup Poll survey conducted in January 2014, 65% of Americans believe that the most humane way of killing someone on death row is lethal injection. Let me define the term humane for you. Humane, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary is defined as “marked by compassion, sympathy, or consideration for humans or animals.” (4)! Yet on July 24th, 2014 According to the LA Times, Joseph Rudolph Wood, was administered lethal injection because Arizona deems it as the most humane way to put someone to death. How long did it take? 1 minute? 5 minutes? No, it took 90 minutes. Thats 5,400 seconds of pain as your body tries to cope with whatever it had been given before you finally die.

Therefore, I see no point to keep utilizing Lethal Injection because… (Other methods are more humane in nature, its ruthless way of killing people, and obstacles in finding the materials that lead into legal disputes between the prison and the victim. The death penalty is a very controversial topic and it is important to fully understand the effects each method has before it is used to execute someone.Regardless on if you believe in the death penalty or not, it still exists in society and we need to find the most humane way possible to perform it if it must be used. Lethal injection is in reality less humane then many other methods of the death penalty According to the same Gallup poll 65% of Americans deemed lethal injection the best form of execution over hanging and the electric chair. However, Lethal Injection as stated by the Death Penalty Information Center this year says on a best case scenario takes 10 minutes, while hanging can take as little as less then a minute. As sad as this may sound to hear, it does take less time for someone being hung to die instead of lethal injection if both are administered properly as if hanging is done properly it breaks your neck causing you to become instantly unconscious dying within 2-3 minutes. The first question people always ask is what about a botched hanging? The Death Penalty Information Center in 2015 deems a botched hanging occurs when the breaking of the neck doesn’t occur and the victim dies from asphyxiation. Even a botched hanging only affects the prisoner for less then a minute and a half by which they slip into a state of unconsciousness and don’t feel the pain. As sad as this may sound to hear, the prisoner is in pain for a less duration of time being hung even on a botched attempt then on a perfect injection.!

Lethal injection is not the best method for the death penalty. Hanging is painful and is an awful way to die but after hearing how painful lethal injection typically is, I assure you you won’t want the latter. News Scientist in 2005 did a study and found that the ingredients used to make Sodium Thiopentol, which is supposed to numb the patient and make them unconscious, isn’t very successful in relaxing the muscles. Let’s hypothetically say it is one of those times that the Sodium Thiopentol actually worked and relaxed the muscles. The Lancet, a scientific journal, in Volume 365 in 2005 explains that Sodium Thiopental causes the patient to be unable to move any muscles not allowing them to communicate even if they are feeling the pain which blood tests show is 87.75% of the time. Even more shockingly, 42.85% of the time the Sodium Thiopentol doesn’t even relax the muscles hindering it completely useless as the second shot of Potassium Chloride is administered which feels like being burned from the inside out as it enters your bloodstream. On top of that, the patient also feels as if they cannot breathe which is equivalent to someone being hung. Clearly this method is not working like it’s supposed to and we need to look at new options. News Scientist also points out that “Ironically, US veterinarians are advised not to use neuromuscular blocking agents while euthanising animals precisely so they can recognise when the anaesthesia is not working” (News Scientist) We realized why it was a bad idea to use them on animals yet we still use them on humans. Lethal injection clearly isn’t humane or the most effective form of death. Lastly, The FDA does not clearly approve of any of these drugs making them almost impossible to find with the limited amount of resources. So the prisons result to illegal nature in order to find these drugs

The places that these prisons get these drugs from are questionable in nature. Yes, I said places and cannot be more specific because the fact of the matter is, we don't know where they get these drugs from. According to The Guardian in 2014, The prisons get these special drugs from unlicensed pharmacy shops that do not have to answer to the FDA. A survey then done on these compounding pharmacies show that “one in four samples from Missouri” alone failed to meet adequate standards. Louisiana turned to one of these illegal shops in a time where there was no Pentobarbital in order to put someone to death. Dennis McGuire’s “humane lethal injection concoction” from this shop was an experimental mix of midazolam and hydromorphone which took over 20 minutes to kill him. However, some lawyers have seen what actually happens to these patients and decided to take legal action against these prisons. Angel Diaz tok 36 minutes to die in which his face was grimaced with pain. After 24 minutes, it looked like Angel was not going to die so they administered him a second dose. The Florida Department of Corrections first claimed that Angel Diaz had Liver Complications which is why the drugs didn’t work. However, he had no medical history at the time that showed this so there currently is an ongoing lawsuit over violating the 8th Amendment. As you can see, it is bad enough that these victims are not given a humane death, but then the prison lies about to cover up what is really happening behind the curtain. Angel Diaz was not the first victim to be covered up from a botched execution and if we don’t do anything about it he won’t be the last. Just last week, The City Sentinal in Oklahoma published an article about Charles Lockett who had a botched execution and now lawyers are suing the Correctional Department. Due to the inhumane nature that lethal injections kill people, court cases from the prisons lying always seem to follow them.

As a nation, we may not all agree that the death penalty is right or wrong but we must all agree that lethal injections are not the way to go. We need to ban the use of lethal injection and maybe even the death penalty as a whole until we can find a way that is humane, but then again maybe no matter what method we use it still may not be humane.

References Dart, T., & Pilkington, E. (2014, January 30). States subjecting death row inmates to longer deaths amid scramble for drugs. Retrieved October 26, 2015. Descriptions of Execution Methods. (2015). Retrieved October 26, 2015. Humane. 2015. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved October 26th, 2015 from http://www.merriamwebster.com/ dictionary/humane Jones, J. (2014, May 25). View of Death Penalty as Morally OK Unchanged in U.S. Retrieved October 26, 2015. McGuigan, P. (2015, October 21). Mix-up, debacle, delay – Oklahoma lethal injection protocol flaws trigger controversy, introspection, and reconsideration of the death penalty. Retrieved October 26, 2015. Pearce, M., Shrikshan, M., & Carcamo, C. (2014, July 23). Arizona killer takes 2 hours to die, fueling lethal-injection debate. Retrieved October 26, 2015. Zimmers, T., Lubarsky, D., Sheldon, J., & Koniaris, L. (2005). Inadequate anaesthesia in lethal injection for execution – Authors' reply. The Lancet, 365(9548). Retrieved October 26, 2015, from...