Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions in Florida after a medical examiner said Friday that prison officials botched the insertion of the needles when a convicted killer was put to death earlier this week.Good for Jeb. I'm glad he did it. But I would hardly use the word "botched" while describing a planned execution that resulted in death. But maybe that's just me.
And from the once Golden State:
Separately, a federal judge in California imposed a moratorium on executions in the nation's most populous state, declaring that the state's method of lethal injection runs the risk of violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.Honest people can disagree over the method of putting somebody peacefully to sleep through lethal injection as being 'cruel' or not, but in California,with well over 600 prisoners(i think its nearly 1000 now,but not sure, and i'm too lazy to look it up), about 2-3 executions in a productive year(usually, it's less than one), and the average length of time on Death Row something like 25+yrs and growing, it certainly is unusual.
It seems to me, the more we try to out think the collective wisdom of the ages through complication of the simple, something goes wrong. In an attempt to render death as nicely as possible, we end up rendering very little death through the most torturously complicated of procedures.
Tell me. What is so goddamned difficult about placing a single bullet through the back of somebody's head? Thats the way it was done for hundreds of years, is still being done by other 'less wiser'(?) nations, and works effectively each and every time. It's quick. Relatively clean. Cost effective. And measureably painless.
Yeah, I know... the bleeding hearts and lefties will bemoan the brutality and bloodiness of it all, but if they can find it in themselves to defend the procedure of piercing a baby's skull and sucking out it's brains, given time, I'm sure they'll eventually come around to acceptance.
To be honest about the issue, I oppose capital punishment, but not for the reasons usually cited by others.
I dont think it's cruel.
I dont think it's unconstitutional.
And for some crimes, I can think of no other more fitting level of sanction.
But in a fallible system, operated by fallble humans, where the wealthy, the connected, the sympathetic, and the famous tend to recieve a more favorable level of justice than the rest of us; where 'equal protection under the law' is a promise without a guarantee, some things are just too final to be policy.
6 comments:
I oppose the DP for two reasons, one of them being the issue of fallibility that you raise. Since my tolerance for mistakes on this is zero (one person wrongly put to death by the state is simply unacceptable), I consider this reason enough to oppose it.
I also have a big problem with killing in cold blood. Not really a philosophical position so much as a personal revulsion. But since I wouldn't be willing to do it, I'm not willing to have it done by the state on my behalf, either.
None of this is to say that some people don't deserve to die, but that has a way of working itself out in the long run, anyway.
I pretty much agree with what both of you said. I think we give govt. way too much power as is, never mind the power of life and death.
Red Letter Day ; ) --I agree completely.
he, thought you'd given up on me. :)
As much as I opposed the death penalty, I have often wondered the same thing about why people who support abortion have such issues with putting a bullet through the head of a convicted criminal, who has been deemed to be a detriment to society. why the double standard? I suppose people are OK with legalized homicide, as long as it's clean and free of gore. Then again, leftists are often hard to understand in their justifications.
gino--nah, just busy, and your question, actually complex. (I had a friend ask me once about a woman who knew her at-term babies were in medical trouble and did not check herself into a hospital until four days later when they had died in her womb, and the state considered prosecuting her ... and later heard that said friend was surprised(?!?) that I sent him four pages of typed response ; ). ) If I manage to complete the email I started, it will be long ... but there is one started.
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