Monday 25 December 2006

Questioning Capital Punishment

Monday, December 25, 2006

Questioning Capital Punishment

That's the title of Bruce Shapiro's article in The Nation. LINK

In the long, contentious history of capital punishment in America, there has never been a moment like this: Over just a few days in mid-December, judges in California and Maryland and the governor of Florida shut down any pending executions in those states--all because of rapidly growing doubts about the humanity and constitutionality of lethal injection. In less than a week, 1,052 death-row inmates were thrust at least temporarily beyond reach of the needle.

And:

Finally, and most important, the Supreme Court's reversals in recent years--its wholesale rejection of executions of juvenile offenders and the retarded--suggest that "evolving standards of decency" are real. Polling data suggest the same thing. To Americans the other methods of state killing employed by a diminishing number of nations--beheading (Saudi Arabia), the shot behind the ear (China), the gallows (Iran)--all seem archaic, visceral, violent. Cool, clinical and peaceful, lethal injection was supposed to overcome public revulsion, but it will not always do so. California may concoct a new drug cocktail or protocol that satisfies Judge Fogel; when Jeb Bush leaves office in January his successor will likely lift the moratorium. But even in the lingering, unforgiving shadow of September 11, the country continues its march away from capital punishment.

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