Nope. Can't don the time? Don't do the crime.

I think that if they have been given the death penalty then they have caused at least one other person to suffer, and that they deserve to have the favor returned. I caught this one the news and one of the actual judges on the Supreme Court had a good point that the Constitution does in no way state that the death penalty has to be painless. I actually laughed when I heard about this. There isn't a way to kill someone that is painless. The fact is as long as they are dead when you are done what else matters.

Lethal injection is one of the most humane ways to execute a person who wasn't humane to his victims. . The drugs they use work excellently and cause verry little or no pain to the body.

Quality is never an accident. it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and SKILLFUL EXECUTION; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives

inhumane punishment! wtf, execution IS barbaric. those that indulge in it are morons!

I think I could go around in circles all day with myself. Generally speaking, and in theory, I don't agree with the death penalty at all. It is an outdated and inhumane policy (in theory). But then I hear of people who do cruel and unusual things to children and cause their extremely painful death, and I would like to be the one to personally torture and cause the extremely painful death of those sick people. Then I think that if we are indeed going to have a death penalty, isn't part of that policy's job to be a deterrent, and isn't fear of a painful death or death at all a deterrent? But then I remember that some people who commit crimes so heinous as to earn the death penalty are already so sick and twisted that they possibly do not fear death and indeed just might enjoy any preceding torture... Like I said, I could go in circles with myself all day.

I think thats a load of crap. How painful was the death of the victim? How much pain was caused to the family of the victim? I think lethal injection is too humane for animals who run around raping and killing Men, women, and children. I think the pain that they inflicted upon their victims, and the victim's family should be multiplied by 10, and then inflicted upon them.

I actually heard the opinions of a few justices in their own words yesterday. Their main concern was with the actual case, not whether capital punishment was legal. They seemed to agree that lethal inject is no more, and perhaps less painful than other forms of capital punishment (electric chair, firing squad, hanging, etc). The justices I heard were Breyer and Scalia.

Personally, I think the victim's families should have the option to take care of the execution themselves if they so choose. If someone beats another person to death with a baseball bat, then the family of the victim should have the option to beat the offender to death with a baseball bat. An eye for an eye... Who the hell cares if it's inhumane? If you do something that awful, you shouldn't have the right to humane treatment (let alone a tv and candy and stuff like that).

A gunshot to the temple form about 3 feet is painless to the victim. So is a shutgun blast to the back of the head at 6 inches. I think there a lot more painless ways to die. Why don't we do those? I don't say this a lot, but screw them. Who cares how the killer dies? They violated the social contract and they have to die.

I think that a nation who can explore the farthest reaches of space and discover medical cures to aid suffering children can do better than to punish its criminals by injecting a cocktail of toxins to kill them. Donwrate away.

Whatever suffering there is, if any at all, is very brief. When I contrast lethal injection with the hideous and barbaric means of execution used throughout history, I have to ask myself what these critics are on about. Plain old death, from illness or serious accident, is far more painful. I support the death penalty for really heinous crimes that are proved beyond doubt. What bothers me is the disparity in its use among states.

At its peak usage, about half of the states of the USA were using the electric chair to administer the Death Penalty. These days, the preferred method is Lethal Injection. The main reason for the abandonment of the electric chair, is that it is so painful and barbarous that even hardened Deep South hanging judges were refusing to administer it. Kemmler's barbarous death was typical. Even though he thrashed around in agony while a thousand-plus volts of AC ran through his body, he survived. He needed a second dose of 1,300 volts for 70 seconds. The first dose had dried out some of the electrodes where they touched his skin, and so the room filled with the scent of burning flesh and hair. His blood vessels burst open, and blood squirted out of his skin. At other electric chair executions, the prisoners' leg muscles spasmed so much that they broke the leather straps holding them down, and in other cases, the flesh was cooked off the bones. The problem lies in what the electricity does. It sends the muscles into uncontrollable, and very painful, spasms. It also sends the heart into fibrillation, where the individual heart muscles writhe in an uncoordinated fashion, like a bag of worms. But the next jolt of electricity would send the heart back into a synchronized rhythm, accompanied by massive muscle pain. And back and forth it would go, until the prisoner eventually died. The concept of an instantaneous and painless death was never realized. Over the last century-or-so, about 4,300 prisoners were killed in the electric chair. These days, the proponents of capital punishment assure us that lethal injection is painless. You have to wonder what we'll be told in a few decades from now. http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1401056.htm

A better way is to use CO2. Co2 is painless. You use small amount to induce sleep,its a sedative so no pain is felt, also normal breathing occurs as you are not technically suffocating. Rapid breathing can be seen because of the bodies nervous response to less oxygen,but no panic is felt as the person is asleep. Once asleep an environment of 80% Co2 at once causes instant death by stopping the lungs and heart at once.

I have to wonder how much pain and terror their victims suffered at their hands. Some of them children. I think the punishment should suit the crime..for most life in prison with no hope of parole would suffice. But for some crimes..the criminal SHOULD suffer..for however long it takes..which is usually under 10 minutes. What about some criminals who kept their victims alive to torture them for days? Should anyone care whether or not they hurt for a few minutes? Does that sound cruel? So be it.

I find it BS! If that person is on death row for killing someone then they should die however and whatever it takes. And why do they even care? They're gonna die anyway. I say, if you've killed someone, you get MAYBE 3 appeals then you gotta die. Stop wasting our tax dollars on trying to keep these killers alive and sitting pretty in a cell (they also get to watch tv, read books, write, work out, earn degrees FOR FREE!!!etc...)they should just be put in a cell with NOTHING but the clothes on their backs, your "bedroom/bathroom" essentials, and thats it.

It is really complicated and I'm not a doctor but I know a bit about drugs/pharmaceuticals. Let me say this from the get-go: I am opposed to the death penalty, period, for reasons that I'm not going to ramble on about here. From what I know about the standard operating procedure, the 1st of the three drugs is a massive dose of barbituate, thiopental, that I do not think anyone could remain conscious under, let alone survive. That alone would probably kill the person. However, it is metabolized very quickly; every humans' body is different. Let's not take the chance and join the rest of the civilized world and abolish the death penalty for good.

To be honest, I don't know if the lethal injection is painful or not. I haven't made research on that yet. Personally, I think that all by itself the death penalty is inhumane and outdated. The fact that someone is a murdurer doesn't give us the right to become executioners. I know that many people will say that they are just following the "eye for an eye" policy, but Gandhi also said: "An eye for an aye will make the whole world blind." Now, I can't deny the fact that every action has its consequences and that crimes must be punished. Nontheless, the death penalty is too extreme and uncivilized for our time. I believed it was already the 21st Century and that mankind was entering a new age of freedom and civilization. We are starting to feel like gods, and that we have the right to decide a man's fate. What many people call justice, has become anything but real justice. Although I agree that life sentences sometimes are not punishment enough for some crimes, we must also start thinking from the side of the accused and think like fellow human beings, not gods.

I don't know about that, but the people who were murdered by those assholes and pieces of human garbage on death row probably felt a considerable amount of pain when they were dying. Why would anyone be concerned about the comfort or discomfort of those low-life slugs anyway?

Yes, I think there is no need for such a complex method of execution. A shot in the head with a big caliber bullet would be a fast, painless method of execution. It has to be a lot cheaper than all those chemicals. The US legal/penal system makes executions very complex and expensive. Why? I have no idea. I have seen short pictures of how they do it in China. While kneeling with the eyes completely covered, a soldier will shoot in the head coming from behind. It looks fast and efficient....

It should be an eye for an eye. When the guy was stabbing, strangling, dismembering, or what ever, it's not likely he was being humane...

Without knowing the details I would have to say that it should be ruled as cruel and inhumane. Personally - and this link to findlaw (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment08/03.html#1) seems to agree - the phrase suggests torture before death to me (like Damiens in France), but the 8th amendment seems to me to cover a chemical cocktail that bubbles around a bit before doing its thing. On the other hand, how do you want to die? Quick and painless or with time and suffering? I think this varies. I don't know if I'd be more afraid of a guillotine or lethal injection. Sudden death is scary too, so it's hard to define what's cruel and inhumane without knowing the person involved.

Well I dont know much about capital punishment seeing as we dont have it in canada, but im sure that its alot like carbon-monoxide poisoning easing you into a sleep that well kills you.

I hope that they don't outlaw Capital Punishment. It's the best method I think to deal with murderers. A life for a life :D With obvious exceptions as in accidents in any way. I.E. Car accident, with the exception of alchohal being involved it's the persons fault and they get jailtime. Anyways, I think that it just needs to get the job done as quickly as possible with no scars to the body so that family can bury them.

We've known this for ages, so... heheh, whoops.

Who cares? Let them writhe in pain.

Execution SHOULD be painful.

I just keep in mind, that a lot of the people on death row, committed crimes when they were young and foolish. Some of these people never had an opportunity to correct their ways. Also, remember that the legal system is not perfect because it is practiced by PEOPLE, and there are innocent people on death row. However they do it, they are justified, don't get me wrong. I am just saying, better to sooth those that feel concern, that satisfy the masses. They, will have no problem sleeping at night like current. So I don't see that it would hurt to gas, then inject. Personally, I don't think too much about it.

LETS CAP EM' i think that the last few hours of their life should be spent in agony inflicted by several gunshot woulnds to the body, until finnaly a shot gun held to the temple and BLAM pop goes THAT wesseal, time for the next

a high powered .30 cal + core loc soft point rifle slug between the eyes, no more head, not much if any pain

what about the wrongly accused and people framed for murder ? death penalty sucks. maybe gun shot or guillotine are painless options if they really have to use it. Where lethal injection is concerned, there is a theory that people get paralyzed and suffocate to death. They are not coming back to tell you about their trauma. Then why use this method ?

if they killed some one and are on death row they should have no rights. i say if they decline lethal injection ,perform slow disembowelment .

If the perpetrator killed someone I believe the victim's family should determine the means by which the sentence should be carried out.

What information do you have that says there is pain? My understanding was one of the drugs in the coctail makes them feel all happy and euphoric as they die, and I think they inject anti anxiety meds before they even roll them into the room. Anyway, I don't think death penalty should be outlawed... but I do think it should require a higher standard of evidence in court, and should be reserved for violent crimes ONLY. I.E., no matter how much money you embezzle, we don't hang you. Kill 50 people with a bomb, we hang you.

Personally, I think they should be killed in the same manner as they killed their victims. That would be more fitting and criminals would be much more mindful about how long they took to drag out their victims death.

Ya know if that's the case, and they do find it cruel and inhumane, then cat and dog kill shelters should also be ordered to cease and desist from uthenizing animals in such a fashion. I mean if it's cruel and inhumane for humans, it's got to be cruel and humane for cats and dogs as well. What about the millions of animals that are slaughtered to make bacon, cheeseburgers, and chicken sandwiches? Are they put to death humanely? Hell no, they smash their heads with an air hammer or simply slit their throats and let them bleed out. Now if the supreme court finds that those methods of killing are humane, perhaps they should consider those methods of execution for death row inmates. I know a couple of murder's I'd like to take an air hammer to!

The drugs are administered, in this order: Anesthetic - Sodium thiopental, which has the trademark name Pentothal, puts the inmate into a deep sleep. This drug is a barbiturate that induces general anesthesia when administered intravenously. It can reach effective clinical concentrations in the brain within 30 seconds, according to an Amnesty International report. For surgical operations, patients are given a dose of 100 to 150 milligrams over a period of 10 to 15 seconds. For executions, as many as 5 grams (5,000 mg) of Pentothal may be administered. This in itself is a lethal dose. It's believed by some that after this anesthetic is delivered, the inmate doesn't feel anything. Saline solution flushes the intravenous line. Paralyzing agent - Pancuronium bromide, also known as Pavulon, is a muscle relaxant that is given in a dose that stops breathing by paralyzing the diaphragm and lungs. Conventionally, this drug takes effect in one to three minutes after being injected. In many states, this drug is given in doses of up to 100 milligrams, a much higher dose than is used in surgical operations -- usually 40 to 100 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight. Other chemicals that can be used as a paralyzing agent include tubocurarine chloride and succinylcholine chloride. Saline solution flushes the intravenous line. Toxic agent (not used by all states) - Potassium chloride is given at a lethal dose in order to interrupt the electrical signaling essential to heart functions. This induces cardiac arrest.

Capital punishment itself is an inhumane act. There should be a moral difference between criminals and the public. Criminals might murder. But representing civilization public should not.

Why don't we just shoot them in the head a couple times. That would quick, cheap and painless.

They should have thought of that before they murdered someone. Were they humane when they killed their victim(s)? They should be forced to feel the same amount of pain they inflicted in my opinion.

OK firing squad it is.

Aren't these people murderers and the like? Were they ''cruel and inhumane'' to their victims? Let's all get a grip here yo...

Funny how American can grapple over that but not over dropping a bomb and killing hundreds of thousands of people with it. American morality is truly a puzzle!

I'm talking about morality, not law. Capital punishment is murder by the public.

How come a lot of the people in this thread sound like serial killers?

After all the news this past week, I think they should try Diprivan, that stuff they found at Michael Jackson's (and will probably find in him). Sounds like it would be neither cruel or inhumane.

Tough shit. Did the heartless piece of shit think about the pain and torture they were inflicting on their victim(s) when they brutally murdered them? Did they stop to think of the torture and pain they were inflicting on those who would be left behind to deal with the sensless death of a loved one no they didn't so why should I give a rats ass if they suffer any pain as they are being executed for the murder(s) they so cold heartedly comitted.

the issue is Lethal Injection, no animal cruelty, or the severity of a criminals acts (I think what causes people to commit inhumane acts can be a matter of one's sociology and psychology) so how humane is lethal injection? not very, taking one's life shouldn't be left to anybody but the touch of death itself, however, in reality is...it exists... this sword is double-edged.. society allows it, it's been around for a while, and at the same time there are threads here, which are obvious, that would swiftly cut-a murderers throat...eye for a eye...or eye for an eye makes em all blind..yatta yatta the more people argue and choose sides, the more confusion there is I think THE REAL ISSUE IS WHAT CAUSES a willful murder,what leads one to act in such a manner, not the act itself and the punishment that follows... the punishment is just as sick as the crime itself I think Krishnamurti has it best when he said "it is no measure of good health, to be well adapted, into a prfoundly sick society"

This is false statement, I did my research on capital punishment in college. We use to gas people which was very very deadly and potent. When we gas someone it would take forever, longest if i remember, was 20 minutes. When the gas started to do its job, it turned the persons skin different color, the heart would be having pretty much a heart attack, the person would be screaming, and having very very violent shacks, and would finally die because the red blood cells could not carry oxygen anymore. Lethal Injection is much more humane, First injection paralysis your muscles, second one puts you to sleep, so you can go peacefully, and the last one stops your heart and breathing. From the past to now, Lethal injection is humane, If they call that inhumane, what about the chair, firing, hanging, so forth.

I do not know the arguments well enough to comment on them - frankly I prefer "life with out parole to execution anyway. Once you execute a person you cannot let them go if they are later found innocent of the crime.

While we have a great legal system, it is far from perfect. I prefer to see life without parole.

For one I dont know how I feel about the death penalty regardless of how fast it takes. Does that mean we're going to start shooting people in the head? Probably not. I'm pretty sure lethal injection is the quickest and most humane thing as of yet.

The best thing is the good old firing squad. A marksman putting a bullet in your head is totally painless. It happens so fast you feel nothing. Some times old technology is best. A nice 7.62mm NATO round will kill instantly with a head shot.