The Death Penalty Of The United States - 2912 Words

The death penalty was introduced to The United States by Britain. There have been over 14,000 executions in The United States since 1608. In 2011, 36 states held 3,158 inmates under the death sentence. Hanging, firing squad, the gas chamber, the electric chair, and lethal injections are all methods that are and were used in the history of The United States. Many individuals do not realize what the prisoners go through before getting executed. They also do not know what happens during the execution. The means of execution can be carried out through what types of executions are there, the development of lethal injection, botched execution through the eighth amendment, and the conflict of a trained medical†¦show more content†¦There is trap door that the inmate stands on, once opened, the prisoner will fall through. The weight of prisoner should cause a rapid fracture-dislocation of the neck, although instant death rarely occurs. When the inmate has strong neck muscles, the dr op is too short, or the noose is wrongly placed, the fracture-dislocation is not rapid, in which death results from asphyxiation. When this occurs the face becomes engorged, the tongue protrudes, the eyes pop out, the body is defecated, and violent movement of the limbs occur. The second use of execution is the firing squad. The firing squad still remains in the state of Utah. The last person to be executed by the firing squad was a man named John Albert Taylor. The execution happened in Utah on January 26, 1996. When an inmate prepares for execution through the firing squad, they are typically bound to a chair with leather straps across the waist and head. They are placed in front of an oval-shaped canvas wall and the chair is surrounded by a sandbag which helps to absorb the inmate’s blood. The inmate must wear a black hood to cover the head. A doctor will locate the inmate’s heart with a stethoscope which results in pinning a circular white cloth to target the heart. There are five shooters that stand twenty feet away; they are armed with