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Lethal Injection

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For some cases, life in prison is an understandable sentence. If justice is served, there should be no problem. But, in our court today, those who are sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty usually are not well represented. This means the person who is being tried does not have a high income and cannot afford to hire and pay a lawyer to help his or her case. When this happens, a public defence lawyer is appointed to them. This usually results in that person losing due to poor representation in court, since they can not afford an attorney. Being of a specific race also leads some to believe the conviction rate of that specific race is more common. In reality, those who are tried are more of a certain race with a lower income, making …show more content…
This form of death is said to be painless for the one who is receiving it. The three drugs given for lethal injection in Oklahoma are: sedative midazolam, vecuronium bromide, and potassium chloride. Sedative midazolam makes the person unconscious and allows the other drugs to be delivered by officials. This drug is only used in four states. Vecuronium bromide paralyzes the person’s body and makes them stop breathing. Potassium Chloride causes cardiac arrest and finishes the job. However, in January, 2015, an Oklahoma prisoner was given the wrong drug. Charles Warner, a baby rapist and murderer, was given potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride during his execution. This chemical has never been used for lethal injection, and doctors do not know it’s effects when injected into a human. Warner claimed his body was “on fire,” and then his neck started twitching for seven minutes (Gillman …show more content…
To prove this, as of December 2005, 37 prisoners were under a sentence of death in our federal system. Of these prisoners, 43.2% were white while 54.1% were African American. This was as of December 2005 as well. This shows there is not much of a difference in the percentage of Caucasians convicted and African Americans convicted. This data was gathered by three research teams based on the degree of crime, and they came to the conclusion that crime does, in fact, determine whether or not someone is convicted rather than race (Facts About the Death Penalty 1).
A big discussion of why the death penalty should be abolished is the cost to execute a human being. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, every state allowing the death penalty spends hundreds of thousands of dollars more for death penalty cases than other punishments. For example, in the state of Oregon, an estimated nine million dollars would be saved between total prosecutions and defense costs per year. In California, taxpayers pay an estimated $114 million dollars more for death penalty cases ("Costs of the Death

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