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Let’s Kill em’ All
For critics of the death penalty, there are a couple of new developments that bolster the argument against the practice. First, Jerry Miller — a man who served 25 years in prison for a rape he did not commit — became the 200th person exonerated by DNA evidence this week. In fact, Miller had already been paroled when his case was tossed (woops!). It took 13 years to reach the first 100 DNA exonerations, but the last 100 has only taken the last five, all of which demonstrates that the jury system is not foolproof, and perhaps 12 people who were not smart enough to figure out how to get out of duty ought not be weighing the credibility of witnesses and deciding the fate of those facing death.
If that’s not enough to convince you (and I realize, if you are pro death penalty, nothing will convince you), a medical study (via TalkLeft) was released this week that suggests that lethal injection does not kill its victims the way that we thought it did.
Our findings suggest that current lethal injection protocols may not reliably effect death through the mechanisms intended, indicating a failure of design and implementation. If thiopental and potassium chloride fail to cause anesthesia and cardiac arrest, potentially aware inmates could die through pancuronium-induced asphyxiation. Thus the conventional view of lethal injection leading to an invariably peaceful and painless death is questionable.
Asphyxiation! That’s a helluva way to go. I’m sure death penalty advocates would argue it doesn’t really matter how the guy goes out — An eye for an eye painful suffocation (to a guy who may not have done it), right? It says so right there in the Bible.
