Capital punishment is declining, many states deeming it 'unilaterally unconstitutional'
Posted February 2021
Staff Reporter
Capital Punishment in the United States has been declining since the 1970s, as many states in the Union have deemed it “unilaterally unconstitutional,” as the California State Senate stated after reaching a Resolution in 2014 to stop further executions of the condemned.
But many states are still executing criminals, though the fewest in U.S. history. Seventeen Americans were condemned to death in 2019, and three executions have already taken place in 2021. There are currently 53 prisoners on death row, waiting on average 20 years from sentencing in court where the subject is condemned to death by order of the court, to execution day. Modern execution utilizes lethal-injection, a deadly cocktail of barbiturates, paralytic, and potassium solutions. The drugs cause the condemned to become unconscious, stop breathing, and experience heart arrhythmia (in that order), usually resulting in a humane, efficient, comfortable, quick death.
“The death penalty is cruel and unconstitutional, and this office will dismantle death by means of firing-squad and electrocution.” -President Joe Biden
But a quick and painless death hasn’t always been the doctrine of the United States Capitol Punishment. Delaware’s Billy Bailey was the last person to be hanged in 1996, since the federal government stopped execution by gallows. Ronnie Lee Gardner was the last to be put to death by firing-squad. Again, the federal government abolished the practice in June of 2010. And in 2011, the federal government dismantled its last death house that used a 2,200 volt, 12 amp electric chair, though many states still offer the condemned a choice to be put to death by electrocution rather than lethal-injection. Most notably in Tennessee in 2020, Nicholos Todd Sutton requested death by means of lethal electric shock.
The Trump administration ordered the Department of Justice to bring back death by firing squad and electrocution. The Senate was convened by Vice-President Mike Pence to adopt the new regulation just weeks before Trump left office. The Senate adopted the articles after only 12 minutes of debate, and it was final. The U.S. Federal Government would begin executing the condemned by electrocution and firing-squad.
After Trump left office, President Biden stated in a White House Press Conference, “The death penalty is cruel and unconstitutional, and this office will dismantle death by means of firing-squad and electrocution.”
The Senate will conviene on March 7 to reevaluate the government's stance on death by electrocution and firing-squad.