Lethal Injection and the Eighth Amendment: A Case for Unconstitutional Cruelty

Lethal Injection: the one form of death penalty that has been used the most. Even though lethal injection was introduced as a form of death penalty in 1977 Oklahoma, the question about the Constitutionality was first brought up in the last two years. Lethal Injection procedures include a physician giving a mix of drugs through an intravenous (IV) line.

The combination of drugs differ from case to case. This is due to the fact that in 2010, drug manufacturers stopped producing the drugs used for the lethal injection, so states were forced to start experimenting with different drug combinations. This leaves the question of constitutionality to these unknown results.

Death Penalty History

The concept of death penalty first started in the Eighteenth Century Britain which influenced the start of the death penalty in the United States. The forms of death penalty during the Eighteenth Century included public boil­ing, burn­ing at the stake, hang­ing, behead­ing, and draw­ing and quar­ter­ing for crimes as small as stealing. Since the death penalty was introduced, it has gone through multiple reforms. Now, the United States has more “humane” forms of death penalty including lethal injection, electrocution, gas chambers, hanging, and ring squad.

Currently, twenty-three states have the death penalty, twenty-three states have no death penalty, and four States took a pause of executions given by an executive order. The legality and morality of the death penalty is highly controversial as “The Supreme Court has never found a method of execution to be unconstitutional, though some methods have been declared unconstitutional by state courts.” 

Image Source: BBC

A Case of Botched Lethal Injection

This brings to a case example of Joseph Wood. Wood was placed on death row for a double murder in 1989 Arizona. On July 23, 2014, he was injected. Wood gasped over 600 times before he died. What was supposed to be a 10 minute procedure, turned into a one hour and 57 minute procedure.

This is not the only instance of elongated deaths during lethal injection since the supply from drug manufactures had stopped providing the United States with the normal lethal injection drugs: sodi­um thiopen­tal, pan­curo­ni­um bro­mide, and potas­si­um chlo­ride. Since 2010, numerous accounts of botched lethal injection have occurred including Brandon Joseph Rhode in late 2010,  Dennis McGuire in 2014, Torrey McNabb in 2017, and many more. The botched lethal injection execution rate of 7.12% is the highest out of all the death penalty methods, yet this method is currently the most used method.

Constitutional Rights

The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution states “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The act of having to gasp for air as a result of an untested combination of drugs is unconstitutional.

The constitution gives every individual the right to not face unnecessary pain and suffering, and situations like botched lethal injections is a clear example of a violation of rights. An individual's constitutional rights do not vanish upon conviction. According to the rights guaranteed to the people, even one botched lethal injection is one too many. 

Concluding Thoughts

I hope to provide an increased understanding and awareness that it has become a common thing to strip prisoners of their constitutional rights, especially when it comes to the death penalty. Although I have only highlighted the Eighth Amendment, a conviction in the eyes of the law amounts to numerous fundamental rights—such as the right to privacy and freedom of speech—often disregarded. We need to take action on the injustices and unconstitutional actions towards prisoners and that time is now. 

Image Source: deathpenaltyinfo