The ongoing debate over the legitimacy of the death penalty recently reached the Supreme Court. In March, the high court heard oral arguments from death row inmate David L. Nelson, one of 15 convicted prisoners to challenge the legality of the lethal injection process over the past year. The debate over whether capital punishment should be used has raged continuously since its reintroduction in the United States in 1976. The latest statistics on the death penalty reveal that 71 percent of Americans support it for people convicted of murder, while 26% are against. It. But recently, attention has shifted to the question of how painless this way of carrying out the death penalty is. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Nelson has joined a growing chorus that calls execution by lethal injection “cruel and unusual punishment.” A Gallup poll conducted at the time of Nelson's hearing* indicates that three-quarters (75%) of Americans agree that "states should be able to execute prisoners sentenced to the death penalty by lethal injection." 21% believe it should not be allowed because it is a cruel and unusual form of punishment. Perhaps in an attempt to find a less painful and more humane way to carry out the death sentence, lethal injection was first proposed as a means of execution in New York as early as 1888, but the state chose electrocution instead. Nearly 100 years later, in 1977, lethal injection legislation was adopted in Oklahoma, but Texas was the first state to actually carry out an execution by lethal injection in 1982. Since then, there have been 742 executions by injection lethal in the United States. ; it is currently the preferred method of executing prisoners in 37 of the 38 states that impose the death penalty. For many years capital punishment was carried out by firing squad, gas chamber, electric chair, hanging or beheading. In light of these methods, how can lethal injection be considered “cruel and unusual”? The argument is that human error during the lethal injection process can lead to problems, sometimes causing a prolonged period of time (up to 45 minutes) before the person dies. Such complaints have led at least one state (New Jersey) to review the entire process, effectively suspending the death penalty until the problem is resolved. Please note: this is just an example. Get a customized document from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay A closer look reveals that there are different levels of support among some demographic and political groups: Women are less likely than men to support the use of lethal injection (70% vs. 82%). Non-whites are much less likely to support it than whites (58% vs. 80%). Liberals are less likely to support it (57%) than conservatives (81%). But regardless of the possibility of applying the death penalty completely painlessly and humanely, feelings about capital punishment and demographic differences are probably driven less by the method of execution than by the philosophical questions surrounding the death penalty itself. These demographic differences are also similar to what we found for baseline support for the death penalty.