As the opposition details in its latest argument, “Setting a Bad Example: US Violates Human Rights”, the United States is a role model for the world when it comes to efficiently running a democracy. In the post the opposition also cites the Bill of Rights, specifically that humans have the right to, “Life, Liberty, and Property”. The biggest hole in the opposition’s argument is simply their admission that there is no definition of “human rights”. If we cannot agree on what something is, how are we supposed to agree that every human being is entitled to it?
It is tough to believe an argument that the United States is violating human rights when we cannot come to a general agreement what rights are being violated. The opposition goes on to cite, “The Death Penalty Information Center” and discusses two instances in which executions were “botched”. The first, concerning John Evans of Alabama and an error with electrodes, is not a good example of what the opposition calls, “cruel and unusual punishment”. Intent is the most important part of our refutation to this aspect. Evans was not a defenseless man tortured, rather he was a convicted criminal that unfortunately was the victim of technical difficulties. The opposition continues to state that lethal injections have become a more popular form of execution and so this problem will not occur as often.
The next case the opposition presents is the case of John Hightower of Georgia. It took 40 minutes for the executioner to find a vein to inject the chemicals that would end Hightower’s life, and he was not pronounced dead until 59 minutes after the execution began. While this means of execution was not as efficient as usual, the extra time it took to complete the process did not cause any additional suffering to Hightower as it did to Evans. During the process of finding a vein, all Hightower did was sit there. After that, the chemicals were injected into his bloodstream, and he died later without pain. This hardly qualifies as a cruel and unusual punishment.
In their latest argument, the opposition tries to present an argument that is based upon something that they cannot define. In addition to that, they are attempting to make criminals out to be victims because of a few cases of inefficient execution. While these two examples are not the ideal examples of capital punishment, they are still two examples in which criminals faced a punishment they deserved. They were in no way tortured in a cruel on unusual way.