Lethal Injection.

Essay by SpeedChick21High School, 12th gradeA+, April 2003

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Lethal Injection Report

For thousands of years, many governments have punished people convicted of certain crimes by putting them to death. The death penalty is considered by many to be the ultimate form of punishment for those who have committed the most shocking crimes. Methods of execution have changed along with time periods. The idea of someone being put to death, no matter how, is not pleasant. The form by which prisoners are being executed changes. In America and other countries, lethal injection is becoming the most commonly used form of capital punishment. More than 3,700 men and women were serving death sentences in American prisons, according to the U.S. Department of Justice in 2001. Many of these people have been on death row for decades. A great number of these executions were carried out by lethal injection.

The capital-punishment process begins when a person is convicted of a crime and sentenced to death.

However, the execution can be delayed for years while the prisoner makes his or her appeals to the courts. In the meantime, the prisoner lives in a section of a state or federal prison called death row. Once a prisoner's appeals are used, an execution order is given and a date is set for the execution. The inmate may be moved from the general housing area into a special area of the prison called deathwatch. This area may be housed in the same building as the execution chamber. Some states move the inmate to a central prison where executions are carried out.

In the final 24 hours before the execution, family, friends, attorneys and spiritual advisors can visit a prisoner. These visits take place in the deathwatch area or a special visitation room. In the final few hours, several events take place in preparation for the...