Why is Electrocution still used in the U.S.?

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According to the U.S. Constitution, cruel and unusual punishment is prohibited.

But how can you then allow for the Electric Chair, that literally fries the inmates while they're still very much conscious and alive, and it takes several minutes for them to get burned to death?

How is that NOT Cruel punishment?

Good question. I never understood why anyone ever thought that electrocuting someone would be a "humane" form of execution.

Likely, electrocution is a common practice, not unusual.

I don't have a problem with the electric chair, but there are better and less expensive methods of execution that would be preferable.

The Electric Chair is actually very rarely used these days. I haven't heard of an execution by that method in years.

When there's an execution, it's almost always done by lethal injection.

Cruel and unusual are somewhat vague and subjective. There should be standards set to define such things.
If I were to be executed I'd prefer the guillotine. I don't see how it could possibly be painful. If it was it would be too late to do anything about it.

Lethal injection, followed by gas, are the most common in the USA. So nowadays it is "unusual".

In theory lethal injection is humane. You fall asleep and never wake up.

Some experts cite evidence that the person does in fact suffer quite a bit. So there is dispute.

But I got shocked once, and it was like my whole body was momentarily turned inside out. How putting a person on to an oversized bug zapper could be less horrific than hanging or the firing squad is hard for me to imagine.

One form of execution that most folks think of as archaic, is actually the first modern humane form of execution, and thats the Guillotine. And in two centuries no one has improved upon it AFAIK. Instantly severs your head, and its lights out. Its gruesome to witness, and gruesome to imagine, but quite easy on the victim.

The guillotine has to be far more humane than the electric chair.

I don't see how cyanide gas execution is any more humane. It's as cruel as electrocution.

I also don't understand why the U.S. seems to have such a difficulty for obtaining drugs for lethal injections, and also seems to cause painful lethal injections, when states that allow terminally ill patients to be euthanized by lethal drugs can do this WITHOUT pain, why not use the VERY SAME DRUGS used to EUTHANIZE - like they do in Oklahoma, North Carolina - or Switzerland, or The Netherlands?

That's a human execution. But I think the real reason they're not making executions simple and painless, is because they are sadists. All americans must therefore be sadists, because they want to inflict suffering.

I agree that capital punishment is barbaric

But why are we not considering the punishments (cruel, unusual, inhumane) the murderers inflicted upon their victims. Why isn't that taken into account? Why is this not addressed?

People don't get the death penalty for "simple" murders these days.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 21 Jun 2021, 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

To answer your first question, Electrocution is still used for a few reasons. The first being that drug companies don't want their drugs used to kill people, the second being that gas chambers using cyanide can take a relatively long time to kill someone, the third option - firing squad - 1 bullet may not do the job. As for hanging? It can fail to kill and merely slowly strangle someone.

I would suppose that since voters have consistently voted for capital punishment to exist, electrocution is the most viable option even if it isn't the best.

Tenneessee performed two electrocutions in 2018, three in 2019, and one in 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_p ... _Tennessee

1. Because that subject has been covered so many times. Now it's also time to look at the point of view from the inmates. Why do you disagree?

2. Because inmates stories are not always that straightforward. As with this example in France with a woman who killed who stepfather who abused her for several years in captivity. Now she faces life in prison, despite she acted in self-defense. I know France doesn't have the DP, but there are many similar stories around the world - in the U.S. as well.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... erie-bacot

Excuse me!

The viewpoint of the inmates is always taken into consideration….and I believe that’s right—especially if one didn’t actually commit the crime.

There have been too many miscarriages of justice where innocent people have been executed. I’m not for capital punishment.

But damnit—if the murderer committed the crime, why shouldn’t that person be made to suffer identically to how (the murderer) inflicted suffering upon the victim?

I didn’t say there were NO electrocutions. I said they were quite rare.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 22 Jun 2021, 7:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

A just society must have capital punishment. Not perfect but just.

Drug companies are making it harder for US prisons to obtain them because they are against killing humans and don't want their drugs to be used for such. So the US is reverting back to old methods of execution.

It's a myth that lethal injection is humane. They don't use medical experts to do the drugs because the medical field won't allow them to be involved so the inmate suffers to death. They don't dilute the drugs enough, don't give them enough to be asleep, etc.

It's more humane when a pet is put to sleep with it because the vet is a professional and knows how much to use on the animal. Same as for euthanasia, the medical expert does it correctly.

Then why not shoot them? I bet there's a much better chance for the inmate to die quickly by firing squad or get shot in the neck (as they did in China), than slowly burning in the electric chair.

To anyone wishing for keeping the electric chair: It could be you in that chair. It could be you, who develop a psychosis and kill someone during a psychotic meltdown, then being dragged from a psychiatric hospital into a prison, where you'll await your execution.

And prior to your execution, your mental illness combined with the anxiety and fear of your execution will undoubtedly result in a worsening of your mental health, you'll get several meltdowns, you'll collapse, crying on the floor - and knowing noone is going to help you.

You'll then not only have to fight against anxiety from a painful death, you'll have to fight twice against the same anxiety, as I bet the anxiety will only worsen if you have a mental illness while being strapped to the chair, having the helmet put on your head, and knowing you'll choke and burn simultanously while having electric current going through your body, not once but often several times, until you're dead.