Painful Execution Methods: Cruel and Unusual Punishment?
When someone is killed by the state in the USA they want to see pain. Few people want to see a pleasant death such as with nitrogen asphyxiation or overdose on opiates where the offender dies with a smile on their face - they want to jolt of pain as the drugs go in, the panic on the offenders face etc. Being that there are alternative methods of execution that don't cause pain, are painful methods cruel? Should painful executions be outlawed? Is the point of the act of execution more than just ending the person life?
Yes
Side Score: 8
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No
Side Score: 2
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2
points
Is the point of the act of execution more than just ending the person life? Sometimes, for some people YES. IMO there exists in the collective minds of many, a sense of justice and even retribution toward some crimes of murderer, so seemingly driven by remorseless evil, that are only satisfied by execution. It is clear that society's answer to some crimes goes beyond future prevention and into the idea of extream punishment. I believe that our laws reflect the wishes of the majority of us. Side: Yes
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The point of execution is not to fix a problem but to prevent same thing to happen again in the future and that by scaring off potential offenders/murderers etc... So the vision of scary, horrible, and very painful death may have better effect than the usual "painless" executions. However my favorite option would be bullet in offenders head followed by full organ harvest so the offender serves to some purpose... Side: No
Execution has not actually been proven to deter crime of any variety, though efforts have been made to conclusively establish the effects of execution for decades. This is quite simply because there are too many variables and assumptions to be controlled for using available data. (Source) With the evidential verdict out, we must rely purely upon what seems most logical... but here too we find inconclusive results. While the threat of execution (particularly a painful execution) might deter a reasonable person from committing murder, this assumes that people act reasonably around a rather unreasonable activity (i.e. it is entirely possible that persons may commit willful murder while believing they will not be caught, or without regard to the consequences). Notably, deterrence is hardly the only justification presented in defense of state sanctioned executions; retribution is also regularly applied in defense of continuing executions. When this reality is taken in conjunction with our lack of knowledge regarding the actual efficacy of execution as a deterrent, it is hard to take the pro-social defense of execution too seriously. Not only is there a lack of evidence to support the claims underlying this defense, but there is a fairly clear asocial motivation the may explain a favorable disposition towards executions. Side: Yes
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