The death penalty is again an issue that attracts attention in the United States, following the decisions of the prison system to remove the right of the Last Supper to those sentenced to death and execute prisoners using pentobarbital.
On the one hand, the Cuban Manuel Valle, executed Wednesday for killing a police in 1978, became the first Florida inmate to receive the compound in the mixture of pentobarbital lethal injection.
Valley's defense reiterated on several occasions, according to EFE that the anesthetic involves a punishment "cruel and unusual", a view shared by human rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union.
On the other hand, and after the convicted Lawrence Brewer, executed last week for killing another man, refused to eat dinner after ordering exaggerated, the government of Texas decided to put an end to that privilege.
"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death and a privilege. It is a privilege that the perpetrator did not give his victim," said U.S. Senator John Whitmire.
However, the news did not find a strong rejection among activists, who have always regarded this as a move in the prison system to appear more compassionate.
Convicted and innocent
But the discussion on capital punishment is on since last September 21, the day that Troy Davis was executed in Georgia, United States, despite doubts about his guilt and the many appeals for clemency in the world.
Davis was nearly 19 years on death row for killing a policeman and three times had managed to delay the sentence.
This man died believing in his innocence and organizations such as Amnesty International indicate that they had sufficient evidence to corroborate what Davis said.
Almost 1,300 people have walked on the death row in the 34 U.S. states that apply the death penalty since 1976.
What for some is a form of justice, for others it is simply a form of revenge and inhuman punishment.
A report by the National Center for Death Penalty concluded that nearly 5 percent of cases the courts of EU innocent condemned to death.
However, surveys have been conducted on the subject, indicate that Americans continue to believe that punishment is a valid but want to be rigorously applied.
The debate remains open for now, next on the list is Frank Garcia, convicted of the murder of his wife and shooting the policeman who came to the rescue, and who will be executed on October 27 in Texas.