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"Death by electrocution was introduced in the United States in 1890 at Auburn Prison in upstate New York, when William Kemmeler was killed by the state of New York. The New York Times described the new method as "euthanasia by electricity," and the U.S. Supreme Court, upholding the state’s court’s decision that death by electricity was not cruel and unusual punishment, had concluded: "It is in easy reach of the electrical science at this day to so generate and apply to the person of the convict a current of electricity of such known and sufficient force as certainly to produce instantaneous and therefore painless death." So opens the book, Dead Man Walking, by Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J. This book is about when Sr. Prejean encountered and provided spiritual counseling for Death Row inmate, Pat Sonnier. In the opening passages of the book she tells what a New World newspaper reporter witnessed at the first execution by electrocution: "The current had been passing through his body for 15 seconds when the electrode at the head was removed. Suddenly the breast heaved. There was a straining at the straps which bound him. A purplish foam covered the lips and was spattered over the leather headband. The man was alive. "Warden, physician, guards … everybody lost their wits. There was a startled cry for the current to be turned on again … An odor of burning flesh and singed hair filled the room, for a moment, a blue flame played about the base of the victim’s spine. This time the electricity flowed four minutes…" This is why some religious groups stand firm when they say that we, the United States of America, should stop capital punishment. There are many reasons why these groups believe that we should stop capital punishment, but today I plan to only focus on only three arguments. These reasons are: it is inhumane, it contradicts the teachings found in the New Testament of the Bible, and we are one of the only world powers to carry on with capital punishment.
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