This Won't Hurt A Bit...

Sometime this year the Supreme Court will make a decision about the use of lethal injections in carrying out death penalties. In the meantime, states are forced to observe a moratorium on delivering death to those who deserve it. The issue being deliberated is whether or not the method used to administer the drugs of death constitutes a violation of the 8th Amendment which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

Attorneys representing two Kentucky death row inmates are specifically challenging Kentucky's protocol for giving lethal injections by presenting evidence of previously botched executions. It seems they are concerned about the danger of cruel and inhumane pain that might be caused if the drugs are injected improperly. Apparently, in some cases, the people being executed weren't fully anesthetized and had to leave this world in pain. Justices of the Supreme Court had to listen to arguments for a kinder, more serene passage to the gates of heaven or hell...requesting special monitoring, including EKG's and blood pressure cuffs to help ensure these convicted murderers don't experience any discomfort. To this, Justice Scalia explosively replied, "This is an execution, not a surgery!" and suggested that all that is really required to determine whether a person is unconcious or not is a good slap in the face and a bit of shaking. Scalia also queried as to where it is written that the state must choose the least painful method when carrying out a death sentence.

I'm with you 100% Justice Scalia. The fact that so much time, thought and energy is even being given to the "comfort" and "ease" with which these animals leave this earth makes me crazy. Let's not forget the heinous crimes that earned these inmates their date-with-death reservations. As far as I'm concerned it should be their VICTIMS that should be FIRST and FOREMOST in our minds when considering execution style. For crying out loud, do we imagine that these criminals showed concern for their victims' dignity and pain thresholds as they robbed them of their very lives? And what about the unending, torturous pain that the victims' loved ones have to live with? Look, I am no sadist - but I am sick of hearing about the rights of these murderers when the murdered seemingly no longer matter.

In 1878 the Supreme Court decided in the case of Wilkerson v. Utah that the following forms of execution constituted cruel and unusual punishment: drawing and quartering, public dissecting, burning alive and disemboweling. Today's method - a death cocktail in a syringe - seems pretty pleasant compared to those methods of old. Too pleasant an exit, I think, for those who've committed especially horrific crimes. At any rate, I hope the Supreme Court doesn't waste too much time deliberating and that the states that uphold the death penalty can get back to business.

P.S. Let me be clear that, while I DO support the death penalty, I do not enjoy thinking about it being carried out and especially hate to hear about the tragic killings that led to these types of sentences. I feel for the prison officials whose jobs require them to perform these executions; it is for their sake that I would prefer death of the convicted comes quickly and quietly. Unfortunately this is a reality our society has to deal with. Sometime last year, during the YouTube debates, Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee answered (eloquently as always) a question regarding the death penalty...take a look below and see just another reason "I LIKE MIKE".