A man on death row in Arizona said an ironic final few words before he was executed this week.
Now, although abolished in many countries, the death penalty is still retained in some parts of the world.
These countries include China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and of course, the United States of America.
The death penalty has been a part of the U.S. justice system for centuries…
And the penalty, which is often referred to as capital punishment, has been in action since approximately 1608… Yep, it’s really that old.
But it’s not currently legal in every state.
And as the years have gone on, it’s become more and more of a controversial and taboo subject.
Many U.S. states have now abolished the death penalty for a number of reasons…
Including the risk factors of executing an innocent person, the fact it doesn’t prevent future crimes, and the fact that it is both discriminatory and can be used politically, as per Amnesty.
Organizations, such as Amnesty, have been fighting for decades to have the death penalty abolished entirely. They have been trying to expose and hold to account governments that continue to use the punishment.
Many find the death penalty totally barbaric.
When questioned, it’s difficult to justify the state killing its citizens.
Campaigners argued that many of those executed over the last few years were killed despite suffering from serious mental and physical illnesses…
Which should have rendered the death penalty an unconstitutional punishment.
And some states have made huge progress in this field.
History was made by Virginia being the first-ever southern state to abolish the death penalty. Other states which have abolished capital punishment include Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and Washington.
But there are still many states that seems to be sticking with their decision to execute including Oklahoma.
Oklahoma enacted the death penalty law in 1977, forty-five years ago.
The method to carry out the executions that take place in the state is lethal injection.
But lethal injections in Oklahoma have been known to go wrong.
Clayton Lockett, who was convicted in 2000 of rape, kidnapping, and murder, suffered a heart attack during his lethal injection, after being given an untested assertion of drugs, which lead him to convulsing and vomiting, dying forty-three minutes later.
And in 2015, Oklahoma actually used the wrong drug during an execution, stopping the heart of convicted r*pist and murderer of an eleven-month-old girl, Charles Warner, as per Slate News, who reported that he called out: “My body is on fire.”
The first to go badly since 2015 was John Marion Grant, who killed a cafeteria worker in 1998…
He was also executed by injection, vomiting, and convulsing also before he died last year.
Arizonia is another state that also still uses the death penalty.
And this week, the state executed the first death row inmate in 8 years.
Clarence Dixon died on Wednesday after receiving the lethal injection, the Daily Mail reports.
Dixon was an inmate on death row after he was convicted of r*ping and murdering Deana Bowdoin, a college student, back in 1985.
The outlet reports that Dixon, who was also a student at the time, strangled, r*ped and stabbed Bowdoin.
Over recent weeks, Dixon’s lawyers had tried to argue that his execution should be postponed due to his mental health, however the argument was rejected and the execution took place.
However, before Dixon received the lethal injection, he said a few ironic final words…
The outlet reports that prior to being executed, Dixon tried to argue his innocence before saying “let’s do this.”
Dixon’s final words were reportedly: “The Arizona Supreme Court should follow the laws.”
“They denied my appeals and petitions to change the outcome of this trial. I do and will always proclaim innocence.”
“Now, let’s do this s**t.”
The outlet reports that Dixon is the 6th person here in the U.S. to be executed so far this year.