The death penalty. It’s been in the news a lot as of late, so I feel a little obligated to write about it. It’s actually an interesting topic to think about as social workers, though, admittedly not one we will come across in New York state.  In a capital offense case (like any crime really), our clients could be anyone; they could be the perpetrator, the victim’s family, a survivor of the crime and likely our view on whether the inmate should be executed would shift as we come in contact with each. There are many arguments from each side; ranging from “an eye for an eye” to “cruel and unusual punishment”. I could present these arguments here but I think you already could guess what my own point of view would be so I thought I might just give y’all some facts, some stories, ya know, some information so maybe you could make your own decision

According to dealthpenalty.info (yes, thats a website), there have been 1,379 execution in our country since the death penalty  was reinstated in 1976.

So far this year, there have been 20.

Several of these 20 executions have made headlines. The problem that arose in a number of those executions was a shortage of the drugs used to lethal injections.This has left prison officials scrambling to find new lethal combinations.  In January, Ohio inmate Dennis Mcguire was killed used a new combinations of drugs and he appeared to gasp and convulse for 10 minutes after his injection. That’s not supposed to happen. Last month, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court ruled that inmates on death row did not have a right to know what drugs were going to be used in their execution. What followed was a the horrifically botched lethal injection of Mr. Clayton Lovett, a stay of execution for Mr .Charles Warner who was scheduled to be killed shortly after Lovett and nationwide debate. Beyond the modality of execution, there has been a recent calling for the end of the death penalty, based largely on the concern that innocent or incompetent individuals will be unjustly executed. CNN aired a series called Death Row Stories, discussing this. A little over a month ago, in Mississippi, Michelle Byron was granted a stay of execution on account of her possible innocence.

This clip sums things up pretty nicely.
And because I’m realizing the facts I’ve presented are REALLY biased… This article, and maybe this one too, might show the other side of things (I swear I searched for a good argument for and found very little to work with)