During the past three decades capital punishment has been a very controversial issue in the United States. 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it was a form of "cruel and unusual punishment." However, this decision did not last long; in July 1975 the Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment did not violate any parts of the Constitution. Executions as they had before 1972 resumed again. Since then 180 prisoners have been executed. The United States Supreme Court should abolish the death penalty because it is a form of "cruel and unusual punishment."One of the major arguments of the anti-capital punishment movement is that it goes against our constitution. Our constitution clearly states that prisoners cannot be subjected to any kind of punishment which is deemed cruel and unusual. However every form of capital punishment used by the U.S.government can be questioned as far of its cruelty towards its victims. Forms of capital punishment in the United States include hanging, firing squad, electrocution, gas chamber, and lethal injection. The most widely used form of execution in the U.S. is electrocution. In this method of execution, the prisoner is strapped to a chair along with electrodes attached all over his body. The executioner then proceeds to "throw the switch" which results in huge amounts of voltage flowing through the prisoner until they are dead. During this period of electrocution the prisoner burns and shakes violently from this overdose of electricity; and often has smoke rising up from his/her head.Officials often defend this punishment as not being cruel and unusual, but how can they defend this opinion in the case of John Evans who was executed by electrocution in 1983? According to witnesses at the scene Mr. Evans was given three charges of electrocution over a period of fourteen minutes. After the first and second charges Mr. Evans was still c...
