Saturday, May 26, 2012

Capital Punishment's latest folly

"The lethal-injection quandary is playing out in a second lawsuit brought by The Associated Press and other news organizations to challenge five states that are violating a 2002 federal court mandate that the law requires every step of execution to be witnessed in behalf of the public. When the death chamber curtains have been drawn lately in Idaho, Washington, Montana, Arizona and Nevada, the main insertion of the lethal injection has already occurred. Some subjects have been seen to barely move, with suspicions arising about some inhumane trauma taking place out of sight.
This shortcut is obviously designed to lessen the risk of official embarrassment if something goes wrong. In the past, bungled injections have left some subjects writhing in agony on a gurney. The death penalty is barbaric. These problems are all reminders of why it is folly to pretend that state execution can ever be made humane."
From editorial, New Your Times, 26th May 2012
The fairy tale is that the executed fall into a peaceful death, like children lured to sleep by their parents

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