Friday 12 January 2007

American Psychological Association Calls for Death Penalty Moratorium


American Psychological Association Calls for Death Penalty Moratorium

The American Psychological Association (APA) , the largest association of psychologists worldwide, recently called for a moratorium on executions. In passing the resolution, the APA cited the number of wrongly convicted inmates exonerated by DNA testing, inconsistencies in prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty, and the role that race plays in death penalty cases. The resolution also noted that two-thirds of all death penalty cases from 1973-1995 were reversed because of error. The APA called upon each jurisdiction in the U.S. to halt executions "until the jurisdiction implements policies and procedures that can be shown . . . to ameliorate the deficiencies" cited in the resolution. (APA Resolution, 8/26/01)

4 comments:

Jeffery Wright said...

Life in prison with its daily exposure to rape, brutality and confinement is not only truly cruel, but it is also very unusual punishment. The gentle, sterile injection of lethal drugs is the merciful, easy way out.

Anonymous said...

I'll start off by saying that I am agianst the death penalty. Just because the needle is sterile does not mean that it is not painful to endure. The Supreme Court tries to say that is not cruel and unusual punishment, but we don't even inject animals who are being euthanized the three-injection cocktail. We have found that it is cruel, vetenarians across the nation have banned this, they now use a 'one-injection method.'
This passage is no disrespect to anyone...I just have one question: How would anyone, effectively and accuratley, be able to measure the amount if pain if the process is lethal? Not only that you will be dead, but, you are paralyzed, how are you supposed to tell that you are hurting? I have been doing some research, the botched executions that were done in the lethal injection manner, reported that the condemned will lift their head, cough, gasp for air, choke, and make a guttoral sound, and they can open their eyes and make eye contact with you...but they cannot speak. You know, if I had to guess, I would assume that the executed would come back to say that is cruel AND unusual, I mean, the botched ones certainly show that.

Anonymous said...

How cruel and unusual was it for the victim?

Farhana Akter said...

When you paraphrase, you rewrite something using your own words. You do not copy nor take the words from the original text. See more apa case study format