tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1807128425586913876.post7176905229156997618..comments2012-06-21T14:34:47.106-07:00Comments on Sedgley ProTeach Summer: Peculiar Institution -- Discussion QuestionMr. Sedgleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03565412985657008173noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1807128425586913876.post-83515938664301908052012-06-04T08:00:50.296-07:002012-06-04T08:00:50.296-07:00Excellent conversation here. I recently read an AC...Excellent conversation here. I recently read an ACLU study that quoted a number of sources:<br /><br />"The latest mode of inflicting the death penalty, enacted into law by more than 30 states, is lethal injection, first used in 1982 in Texas. It is easy to overstate the humaneness and efficacy of this method; one cannot know whether lethal injection is really painless and there is evidence that it is not. As the U.S. Court of Appeals observed, there is "substantial and uncontroverted evidence… that execution by lethal injection poses a serious risk of cruel, protracted death…. Even a slight error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but paralyzed while dying, a sentient witness of his or her own asphyxiation." (Chaney v. Heckler, 1983)...Nor does execution by lethal injection always proceed smoothly as planned. Its veneer of decency and subtle analogy with life-saving medical practice no doubt makes killing by lethal injection more acceptable to the public. Journalist Susan Blaustein, reacting to having witnessed an execution in Texas, comments: "The lethal injection method … has turned dying into a still life, thereby enabling the state to kill without anyone involved feeling anything…. Any remaining glimmers of doubt – about whether the man received due process, about his guilt, about our right to take life – cause us to rationalize these deaths with such catchwords as ‘heinous,’ ‘deserved,’ ‘deterrent,’ ‘justice,’ and ‘painless.’ We have perfected the art of institutional killing to the degree that it has deadened our natural, quintessentially human response to death." Although the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the current method of lethal injection used is constitutional, several people have suffered because of this form of execution. Further, the drugs used for lethal injections are no longer manufactured in the United States, so many states are now engaged in back-door deals with other states and foreign businesses to obtain drugs to be used “off-label,” and not for their designed intent. So far, legal challenges against this substitution of lethal drugs have not succeeded in the U.S. courts...Revulsion at the duty to supervise and witness executions is one reason why so many prison wardens – however unsentimental they are about crime and criminals – are opponents of capital punishment...Recently, Allen Ault, former executioner for the State of Georgia, wrote, “The men and women who assist in executions are not psychopaths or sadists. They do their best to perform the impossible and inhumane job with which the state has charged them. Those of us who have participated in executions often suffer something very much like posttraumatic stress. Many turn to alcohol and drugs. For me, those nights that weren’t sleepless were plagued by nightmares.”Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02120173242138465243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1807128425586913876.post-48733686646023001482012-05-31T10:56:10.540-07:002012-05-31T10:56:10.540-07:00While I understand your point that capital punishm...While I understand your point that capital punishment isn't going away as long as there continues to be, or seems to be anyway, support for it among the majority of Americans, I wonder if the "humane" nature of modern capital punishment now is actually more of a positive feedback into the idea that capital punishment is both socially and morally acceptable. For instance, maybe if the guillotine or drawing and quartering had continued to be the popular means of capital punishment throughout the 20th century there would a greater desire to end the practice, but now that advocates can tout the "humane" procedure of lethal injection those not already staunchly opposed to the institution may get the impression that it's clean or guilt free, something that won't trouble their own conscious.<br /><br />The only similar thing I can really point to is our modern idea of warfare with it's focus on precision weapons and surgical strikes. Drone warfare and cruise missiles make it so easy to distance ourselves from conflict. Have these inventions really just made fighting more acceptable to us or do we just really like war?JKwonghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16755967093472752278noreply@blogger.com