Capital Punishment's Lethal Injection Too Much of a Punishment?

Capital Punishment is defined as the execution of a convicted criminal by the State as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. Capital Punishment is given when the crime is considered so great and so horrible that it is over the realm of being forgiven or pardoned. Capital punishment in the United States is officially sanctioned by 38 of the 50 states; the minimum age at time of crime to be subject to the death penalty is 18. Currently lethal injection is the method used or allowed in 37 of the 38 states which allow the death penalty and by the federal government. Nebraska requires electrocution. Other states also allow electrocution, gas chambers, hanging and the firing squad. The use of lethal injection has become standard. 

In the final 24 hours before the execution, a prisoner can be visited by several people, including family, friends, attorneys and spiritual advisors. These visits take place in the death watch area or a special visitation room, and are halted sometime during that last day. Regardless of the method, an hour or two before the execution, the condemned person is offered a last meal. Prisons try to provide whatever meal is requested by the condemned prisoner. In some states, male inmates are given a fresh pair of pants and a shirt, female inmates a dress, and the prisoner is allowed to shower before getting dressed. In other states, the inmate must remove all outer clothing. Executions are carried out in private with only invited persons able to view the proceedings. However, recently, death row inmates in more than a dozen states are fighting lethal injection stating that lethal injection is excruciatingly painful.