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Traditionally, the use of capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, has been one of many polarizing social issues in the United States. Proponents of the death penalty argue that it deters crime and provides victims’ families closure, while opponents say it constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment” and thereby violates the Eighth Amendment. Currently, thirty-two American states still have the death penalty, but public support for the death penalty is falling and the rate of executions is slowing. Oklahoma’s recently “botched” execution of Clayton D. Lockett by lethal injection has the potential to reignite the American death penalty debate and extempers should be prepared to discuss the constitutionality and future of the American death penalty at upcoming tournaments.
This topic brief will provide some important background information on the death penalty in the United States, highlight the arguments used by supporters and opponents of capital punishment, and summarize the current debate over the constitutionality of lethal injection, the preferred method of execution by all states that have the death penalty.
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