Why does the ACLU think that the death penalty is "cruel and unusual"?

Question

It seems to me if the death method does not include torture, and there is no question as to actual guilt, then it can be appropriate for the state to kill.

Answer 1

Executions in the United States are becoming increasingly unusual. The number of executions in the United States is sharply declining for a number of reasons. As one of your answerers, Inquisit writes, a number of botched executions can be described as torture. And Florida and California) have a moratorium because the lethal injection process may indeed constitute torture. The only difference here is that since the prisoner is paralyzed by one of the three chemicals, he is unable to writhe or moan or scream.

People are seeing more and more innocent people released from death rows, over 120, some after serving many years there. Life without parole, which is swift and certain, is available in more and more states and jurors are choosing it over the death penalty.
Polls show that increasing numbers of Americans believe that life without parole should be the worst sentence, not the death penalty because of their concerns that we could execute an innocent person.

Americans are learning the hard facts about the death penalty- it is not a deterrent (states with the death penalty have a higher homicide rate than those that do not), costs much more than life without parole, makes mistakes.

You can also read statements of murder victims family members who reject the death penatly because it puts families like theirs through an prolonged ordeal, while life without parole, which is rarely appealed does not.

It is so important not to inject right vs left arguments into this discussion. This is a matter of fact based common sense, not ideology. The issue is too important for people not to take time to learn the facts. It is also important to realize that people who oppose the death penalty do not excuse depraved acts, but believe that those who commit them should face severe punishment.

Answer 2

99% of the time there can be a "question" as to guilt. In addition, the ACLU considers "death sentences" inhumane and against the rules of civilized society.

The history of capital punishment is replete with examples of botched executions. But no execution is painless, whether botched or not, and all executions are certainly cruel.

Hanging was the most common form of execution throughout the 19th century and is still practiced in a few states. Problems often attend hanging: If the drop is too short, death comes through gradual strangulation; if too long, the jerk of the rope rips the head off. Electrocution succeeded hanging in the early 20th century. When the switch is thrown, the body jerks, smoke frequently rises from the head, and there is a smell of burning flesh. Science has not determined how long an electrocuted individual retains consciousness, but in May l990, Florida prisoner Jesse Tafero gurgled, and his head bobbed while ashes fell from it, for four minutes. And in 1983, it took three jolts of electricity and ten minutes to kill an individual in Alabama. The gas chamber was intended to improve on electrocution. The condemned is strapped in a chair and a cyanide pellet is dropped into a container of sulfuric acid under the chair to form lethal gas. The person struggles for air and may turn purple and drool. Unconsciousness may not come for several minutes. The firing squad is still administered in Idaho and Utah. The condemned is strapped in a chair and hooded, and a target is pinned to the chest. Five marksmen, one with blanks, take aim and fire. Lethal injection is the latest technique, first used in Texas in l982 and now mandated by law in more than a dozen states. Although this method is defended as more humane, efficient and inexpensive than others, one federal judge observed that even "a slight error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but paralyzed while dying, a sentient witness of his or her own asphyxiation." In Texas, there have been three botched injection executions since 1985. In one, it took 24 minutes to kill an individual, after the tube attached to the needle in his arm leaked and sprayed noxious chemicals toward witnesses. Another, in 1989, caused Stephen McCoy to choke and heave for several minutes before dying because the dosage of lethal drugs was too weak.

Eyewitness accounts confirm that execution by any of these means is often an excruciatingly painful, and always degrading, process that ends in death.

Capital punishment is a barbaric remnant of uncivilized society. It is immoral in principle, and unfair and discriminatory in practice. It assures the execution of some innocent people. As a remedy for crime, it has no purpose and no effect. Capital punishment ought to be abolished now.

Answer 3

A better question is why the US is in favor of it. We are the only industrialized nation that supports the death penalty. Not to mention it costs us much, much more to kill someone than put them in prison for life. We put people to death simply for revenge.

Note: It is impossible to take away the rights of the criminals without taking away the rights of the innocent.

Answer 4

I refuse to give you or anyone else my opinion of the ACLU. I will however say this, I don't agree with anything they stand for.

If someone deserves the death penalty, then put them to death. Also, do not drag out the appeals for years, and years, and years.

Answer 5

Because the ACLU is a bunch of bleeing heart liberals who think that the pieces of **** criminals who commit crimes against other people are the victims. They ought to to make it mandatory death for any crime against children, rape and or murder.. Freaking bleeding heart bastards have made it so that the effing criminals have more rights than the victims. If they commit the crime they pay the price.
We need some vigilante justice in this country. anyone ever hurts anyone in my family will not make to acourtroom. I'll be the judge jury and the damn executioner to.

Answer 6

because they think they are better than everyone else. My response is did that person they killed deserve to die? They desrve no better than what they did

Answer 7

ask them.

http://www.aclu.org/