Lethal Injection halted as Supreme Court debates

Virginia is for lovers. Billboards and tourist merchandise across the state tout the Virginia state slogan. Yet the state that claims to be the state for lovers ranks second in the number of people it kills each year.

On Oct. 17, the Supreme Court stopped the execution of Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmett. Emmett was given the death penalty after he was convicted for brutally beating a co-worker with a brass lamp in a Danville, Virginia motel room in 2001. He then stole the dead man’s money to buy crack. The court granted the order to stop the execution just four hours before Emmett was to be put to death and gave no reasons for the halt.

Although a large number of Virginians claim they are liberal, a larger number deeply believe in the death penalty and lethal injections.  In 2006, four executions were carried out in Virginia alone. 

Recently, the Supreme Court halted a recent execution in Mississippi.  This might be an impetus that would suspend executions around the United States. The Supreme Court is yet to decide whether lethal injections are cruel and unusual. 

This issue is very controversial, and yet a whopping 80 percent of the population believes that the death penalty is justifiable, while only 20 percent believe that the death penalty should never be implemented. Among the 38 states using the death penalty, Virginia, with a population of about 7 million, ranks second only to Texas, which has a population of 19 million, in the number of executions.  Virginia has carried out over 1,300 executions in its history, more than any other state; while at the same time, the commonwealth has executed more women and the youngest children of any state in the nation.  Historically, as well as recently, Virginia continues to be among the very few states or regions in the world that continue sentencing convicted murderers to death on such a large scale.
“I think the Supreme Court is long overdue.  It is an embarrassment that Virginia is number two in the country.  And yet, we still have more killings occurring than some other non-lethal injection states,” said senior Lauren Madison.

Legal experts say that the Court’s move could prompt a nationwide halt to lethal injections until the courts make a decision next year as to whether lethal injection is a form of “cruel and unusual” punishment as stated in the Constitution.

“If the death penalty has to be implemented, it seems that compared to the electric chair, lethal injection is much more humane,” said junior Bella Ibrahim, who fundamentally opposes the death penalty.

It has been more than a 100 years since the Supreme Court has examined a Constitutional challenge to a type of execution, although appeals from inmates often contest the means of bringing about death.

 “A life does not deserve to be taken away no matter how big the crime. I think Virginia should stop all death penalties and prisoners should just be sentenced to life,” said freshman David Allison.

Emmett’s court case marks the second time that the justices have stopped an execution since agreeing to decide whether lethal injections violated constitutional standards. Since lethal injection is the primary method of execution in 37 of the 38 states that institute the death penalty, a lot of states are fence-sitting on the issue until the Supreme Court can make a decision.

“I don’t see the death penalty as the worst form of punishment. I think imprisonment for life is a better punishment because you live and think about your mistakes for the rest of your life,” said junior Erin Price.

This debate over the death penalty has been sparked since last year’s highly publicized botched execution in Florida where the man sentenced to death suffered for a full 34 minutes before finally dying. Angel Diaz was strapped onto a gurney and given a lethal injection that was supposed to take effect in 15 minutes. However, he lay there grimacing and squinting in pain while trying to speak until prison officials gave him a second injection that finally killed him.

Studies have shown that some of the chemicals used can cause intense pain, but since no one has actually been able to express the pain after being injected, it is hard to say exactly how much an inmate can suffer. The debate now is whether lethal injection can be considered cruel and unusual in regards to the intense pain the inmate possibly feels.

“Although I believe in the death penalty for murderers, I don’t want people to suffer through it. Injections should be as quick and painless as possible,” said junior Travis Valle.

 Fear of further instances like the Florida case is what is prompting the halt of executions nationwide. Now, Emmett’s case will be one of the landmark cases in Supreme Court history that decides the fate of many death row inmates across the nation. Virginia’s prominence as one of the leading states in lethal injection makes the state a hot spot for this controversial issue.