Today's Kansas City Star reports, "Missouri’s one-drug execution plan draws some critical looks." It's written by Tony Rizzo.
Even widespread use of lethal injection as an alternative to methods such as the gas chamber, the gallows or electrocution provided only a humane veneer to what essentially is an inhumane act: the taking of another person's life.
Some death-penalty experts, both pro and con, even argue that the firing squad's bullet to the heart is as quick and pain-free as any other killing method.
"Any manner of killing someone," Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York, "is going to involve some kind of pain."
The constitutional question is what level of pain is acceptable before it morphs into "cruel and unusual."
That has clogged the courts and delayed for years executions for convicted killers such as Nunley and Taylor.
"It's wrong to equate humane with painless," said New York Law School professor Robert Blecker. "Some people deserve a quick but painful death."
Today, that ongoing debate centers squarely on Missouri.
And:
While Denno opposes the death penalty and Blecker advocates it, the two professors share the belief that there is a feasible alternative.
"We agree that if you're going to have the death penalty, probably the most appropriate method is the firing squad," Blecker said.
The state of Utah has carried out three executions by firing squad since 1977, most recently in 2010, and Denno said in none of those cases was any undue suffering reported.
"It's probably as painless a method as we have," she said.
Denno also sees it as a more honest approach to carrying out a death sentence.
"You can't have it both ways," she said. "You can't execute people while pretending that they're just falling asleep."
For Blecker, one of the most galling aspects of execution by lethal injection is the resemblance to a medical setting. He made a critique on that point in his essay "Killing Them Softly: Meditations on a Painful Punishment of Death."
"AG Koster Fighting State Supreme Court Over Execution Hold-Ups," is the MissouriNet post by Austin Robertson. It's via KTTS-FM.
The debate over the death penalty is back in the spotlight in Jefferson City. Attorney General Chris Koster is pressing the state supreme court to act on a pending lawsuit concerning death row inmates.
Proposals have been made in the legislature for a death penalty moratorium, or even a repeal. But Koster doesn't think the latter is very likely, based on his time serving in the Senate and seeing his colleagues deal with the issue.
Koster argues there are times when the death penalty is appropriate. He's fighting a lawsuit by inmates on death row. The suit claims a drug used for lethal injection causes undue pain, and therefore fits the criteria for cruel and unusual punishment.
Earlier coverage of Missouri lethal injection issues begins at the link.
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