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The Case For Lethal Injection
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Published: January 9, 2008
The Kentucky inmates challenging the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol believe it is unconstitutional because there is a possibility that if administered improperly, it could cause excruciating pain. Thus the men claim the procedure is a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
They're not challenging the death penalty itself - the U.S. Supreme Court has said capital punishment is constitutional - but only the method. Nevertheless, their goal is clear: stopping executions in the United States.
So far they've been successful. Since the court agreed to take the case last year, after inmates in Florida and Ohio took much longer than usual to die, there has been a moratorium on executions.
But it looks like the justices aren't ready to say the 30-year-old lethal injection protocol, developed as a more humane alternative to the gas chamber and electric chair, is cruel and unusual.
Rather than ask the justices to spare their clients, the inmates' lawyers this week cleverly offered up another protocol: Increase the dosage of sodium thiopental, the barbiturate used in the three-drug cocktail to anesthetize the condemned, so it will kill the prisoner painlessly.
Surely no one called upon to administer the ultimate penalty desires to be cruel or inhumane. But if the court adopts a standard that says the method of execution must be one in which there is absolutely no risk of pain, then any procedure developed to kill will face endless challenges.
The justices, however, did not seem convinced the three-drug cocktail causes a painful death or that there is a more humane method available to carry out the sentence.
The use of the death penalty as punishment for the worst crimes is a legitimate issue for political debate, and there is wide concern about the morality of capital punishment. With lethal injection, states tried to soften the look of it, but opponents insist the death penalty is state-mandated murder in any form.
Supporters of capital punishment make rational and compelling arguments, too, including that many people sentenced to death are guilty of crimes so hideous that a prison sentence, however long, doesn't satisfy society's sense of justice.
Doubts about the death penalty tend to give way in the face of insanely brutal and horrific killings. At those times, the manner of execution matters less than the assurance that ruthless murderers pay the ultimate price for their crimes.
Reader Comments
Posted by ( JackNelsonSteward ) on January 9, 2008 at 7:39 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
First, there is a distinction to be drawn: Consider "Justice" as contrasted with "Vengeance." When we are so repulsed, horrified, by the acts of fellow men (and women) that we feel "justified" in killing them, what are we up to? If we are trying to protect the rest of us from their possible further acting out, confining them to prison will accomplish that. Leaving them to live in a cage with their crimes to think about until they die is arguably more punitive than a quick and (probably) painless death. What does killing them satisfy? Justice or vengeance?
Next, if the State has the power of life and death over you, are you a citizen or are you a subject? If you own the State, should it have the power to kill you based on the outcome of a judicial proceeding?
Also, if you have watched the court system at all, do you consider that it reaches the correct outcome with sufficient accuracy and reliablity that it should be entrusted with the power of life and death? Trials are often not about a search for truth. They are frequently about theater and who's more influential, often due to an ability to spend large amounts of money on the case. How many rich people are on death row? That alone might give you pause for thought.
There is considerable research that indicates the death sentence is handed down to minority defendants much more frequently than others. Do you really believe that minorities commit the majority of the shocking and horrible rapes and murders?
We are clearly ambivalent about capital punishment. The system is crammed with automatic appeals in an attempt to clear our minds of any doubt. These appeals and the protracted procedures involved actually make carrying out a death sentence more expensive than life imprisonment. It's cheaper to keep convicted people in prison for life than it is to calm our minds about the possibility of mistakes.
Finally, when you lower yourself to the level of your enemy, your enemy has defeated you. We are condemning the behavior of those who kill, then we are killing.
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Posted by ( joeyn ) on January 9, 2008 at 8:05 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Combine the rush for judgment with the death penality and all to many times the innocent are executed.
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Posted by ( kenny48 ) on January 9, 2008 at 10:28 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
The death penalty is neither justice, nor is it actual punishment. It is simply vengeance as the writer above has said.
If we were really out to punish, cold blooded murderers. The worst punishment possible is incarceration for life with no way out. Spending ones entire life in a small cell, is not in any means "pampering". Try it sometime, spend a whole day in your bathroom. See how it feels. You would want out before the day was over. Then multiply that time by a lifetime. That is real punishment! Being "put to sleep" is just a quick way out. It also makes murderers out of those who
commit the act.
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Posted by ( Major7th ) on January 9, 2008 at 1:29 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
we need to write and addendum to the 8th ammendment. If they are scheduled to die, then they don't deserve a painless death. In most cases, the more pain they are caused, the better. We should go back to firing squads and hanging, and screw this cruel and unusual crap. I can garrantee you, they didn't get on death row, without causing some suffering.
Take'm out back and shoot'm
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Posted by ( soldier62 ) on January 9, 2008 at 4:54 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Guillotine! Guillotine!
If we put these murderers in jail for life, they have nothing to lose by killing a guard or other inmate, not to mention taking hostages to escape, or killing more innocents on the outside if they get away.
Based on the "bathroom" analogy, that is certainly something to be expected.
For particularly heinous crimes, I believe they should be placed face-up so they could watch the blade come down.
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Posted by ( bigmac1952 ) on January 10, 2008 at 9:53 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
WHEN ONE ENTERS THE WORLD, THE FIRST THING THEY EXPERIENCE IS PAIN, THE PAIN OF BIRTH. LIFE IS PAINFUL. AS FOR BRINGING SOMEONES LIFE TO AN END FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITYS RULES, THERE CAN NEVER BE A GUARANTEE OF A PAINLESS DEATH. WE DO LET CRIMINALS USE EVERY TECHNOCALITY AND ALLOW THEM TO SIT ON DEATH ROW FOR TWENTY YEARS WHICH AMOUNTS TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT FOR ALL INVOLVED, THE VICTUMS AND THE GUILTY. IF PUNISHMENT SHOULD BE WARRANTED IT SHOULD BE QUICK AND FIT THE CRIME. MY ONLY DAUGHTER WAS KIDNAPPED, RAPED, SODOMIZED, THEN HAD HER THROAT SLIT AND THEN PUSHED INTO A FREEZING RIVER TO DROWN. THE ANIMAL THEN WATCHED HER TRY TO ESCAPE HER FATE AS SHE CRAWLED OUT OF THE RIVER AND ONTO THE SNOW COVERED GROUND. DO I FORGIVE HIM OR CARE IF HE EXPERIENCED ANY PAIN AS HE WAS GIVEN A SHOT AND WHEN TO SLEEP? NO. IF FORGIVENESS IS DEVINE, I'D RATHER ROT IN HELL WITH THE ANIMAL THAT KILLED MY ONLY DAUGHTER. SPENDING AN ETERNITY WITH HIM WOULD BE CRUEL AND UNUSAL FOR HIM AND PARADISE FOR ME.
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Posted by ( JackNelsonSteward ) on January 11, 2008 at 7:27 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
This is so terribly sad and painful in so many ways.
I hope that someday, in your faith, you find a release from a rage so consuming that you would voluntarily request an eternity in hell. Your rage has tied you to an animal you no longer can reach. The rest of your life is sacrificed on the altar of your hatred of a monster.
She is gone, he is gone, you are here.
May you turn to God and find release.
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