Today's New York Times publishes the editorial, "State-Sponsored Horror in Oklahoma."
Jurists and lawmakers are increasingly aware that an immediate moratorium on death is the only civilized response to this arbitrary cruelty. As Wallace Carson Jr., the former chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, put it recently, “the exceptional cost of death penalty cases and the seemingly haphazard selection of which cases deserve the death penalty outweigh any perceived public benefit of this sanction.”
The “exceptional cost” refers not just to dollars and cents. It refers to the moral diminishment of the United States when a man dies by the hasty hand of government, writhing in pain.
"Oklahoma's Cruel and Unusual Justice," at Bloomberg New.
Capital punishment, which is practiced by no other advanced nation, might be defensible if it deterred crime better than prolonged imprisonment. But there is no convincing evidence that it does.
Meanwhile the evidence is mounting, in Oklahoma last night and elsewhere, that there is no humane way to put people to death. This fact may not much bother supporters of capital punishment. But no American should support a government when it knowingly inflicts pain and suffering.
"Execution fiasco must never be repeated," is the Tulsa World editorial.
There's no sugar coating Tuesday evening's botched execution of murderer Clayton Lockett.
It was a fiasco.
It made Oklahoma look barbaric and incompetent to the world.
"Botched executions demean the nation and justice," in the Kansas City Star.
Oklahoma officials took a risky and arrogant gamble with the execution of an inmate and failed in the most appalling way.
Repercussions from the botched execution Tuesday night of Clayton Lockett should send clear messages to other states, in particular Missouri.
Cease with the secrecy. Respect the judicial process. Do not take chances that a state-sponsored killing with untested drugs will proceed smoothly.
"Botched Oklahoma Execution Is Another Blow to the Death Penalty," in the Denver Post.
The botched execution of an Oklahoma prisoner this week is a gruesome reminder of the increasing difficulty involved in carrying out a penalty that has been losing support in this country and around the world.
It's time to acknowledge that the death penalty not only sucks time and resources from the criminal justice system, with the sentence ever more difficult to obtain even as it provides no discernible deterrence, but that the executions themselves are now problematic.
The Philadelphia Inquirer writes, "No more executions."
With states bordering Pennsylvania on three sides having done away with the death penalty, and with the news that Gov. Corbett signed another death warrant this week, Harrisburg should heed the Oklahoma debacle and conclude that capital punishment is a system beyond repair.
"Capital barbarism," is the Bergen Record editorial in New Jersey.
FORTY-THREE minutes. That's how long it took the state of Oklahoma to kill death row inmate Clayton Lockett on Tuesday in a botched, inhumane execution that should be a clarion call to begin a conversation about ending capital punishment once and for all. At the very least, it is time for even those who favor the death penalty to admit that in its current form, it fails to meet the Constitution's standard against "cruel and unusual punishments."
"All in the execution," in the New York Daily News.
Exactly how Oklahoma screwed up, despite months of litigation over details of the procedure, remains unclear. Was the drug cocktail they improvised for lack of better alternatives ineffective? Did they botch the injection?
Find out quickly. And ensure that this never happens again. Or watch support for the death penalty wane, with good reason.
Alabama's Anniston Star publishes, "Denying the death penalty."
The free market is speaking to Alabama and other states using capital punishment. The message: Stop.
Alabama and a host of other death penalty states that use lethal injection to execute inmates find themselves in a bind. A key drug used in executions — pentobarbital — is in short supply. That’s no accident. Drug manufacturers are uncomfortable with their products being used in executions. Turns out that death in the form of state-sponsored capital punishment is considered by many pharmaceutical companies as bad for their brands.
Also in Alabama, the Florence Times Daily writes, "Capital punishment not the answer to crime."
A life sentence without the possibility of parole is adequate punishment. Anyone who has been inside a prison, especially in Alabama, knows it’s not a life anyone would want to lead.
The St. Louis American posts, "When fighting monsters "
What happened to Lockett could happen to any of the condemned prisoners in Missouri whose executions the Missouri Supreme Court continues to schedule and that Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster continue to endorse and encourage. Indeed, as St. Louis Public Radio points out, Koster even used the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling on one of Lockett’s appeals to argue that Missouri’s execution drug supplier should remain secret.
Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botched execution begins at the link.
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