The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Kentucky's method of lethal injection does not constitute an unconstitutional state-sponsored way to end a life. Essentially, lethal injection is officially not cruel and unusual punishment.
The cocktail of drugs used in most lethal injections is a trinity: A sedative knocks the inmate out, then a paralyzing agent, and a drug to stop the heart kills them. When the sedative is not administered properly, the paralytic and heart-stopper cause intense pain that, thanks to total paralysis, render the inmate unable to relate to his executioners. Theoretically, if all goes according to plan, this tri-fold system will end a life humanely.
Whatever "humanely" means.
To be honest, I'm not really sure how I feel about the death penalty at this point, but I know that I don't approve of this current iteration. At the risk of sounding like a psychopath, I miss firing squads.
My internal debate comes from the struggle between my upbringing and my view of the world as a burgeoning adult. I was raised in a liberal enclave where the leftist intellectual was in charge. I started protesting at various demonstrations when I was six years old. My first "honk if you don't support the death penalty" experience was when I was eight. Then as of now, I wonder what the hell we were hoping to accomplish by shaking signs at passing motorists.
So the little liberal in me is against the death penalty in all forms. Like a Jiminy-Cricket-sized Jerry Garcia, he sits on my shoulder and yells at me for any thoughts that stray too far from the left.
My view of the world has changed. I've seen bad things done to good people, and I know in my bones that I will see worse done to better.
Understand, I don't come to any of this lightly. I'm going against a lifetime of liberal parentage and influence. This is not frivolous. This feels, physically, like grief.
I no longer think the death penalty is a bad thing. I do, however, think that we stand in an illogical position as a nation endorsing state-sponsored murder. We also need to admit to ourselves that the death penalty is state-sponsored murder. We decide that a person no longer deserves to live for a crime, and we murder them.
Why are we worried about the humanity of the act? Probably because by the time we surround execution with so many rules and regulations, so many different levels of drugs and sterility, it no longer seems like murder. But it still is. A person has died at the cold, calculating and, where it counts, merciless hands of another. Hell, that sounds like the kind of thing we'd... execute... hmm.
Realize that your courts do not save you. Your religion does not absolve you. Your system cannot save you. For all your rules, your checks and balances, you are no better than the man you sentence to death. Own it. Accept it. We all hold the knife, together.
Don't try to tell me that the world will be a better place without Capital Punishment. Here's my ego: I am better at "Hippie" than you. I've been doing it longer. Rape and murder have endured the entirety of human history. They are absolutes of the dark side of humanity.
No one wants to hold the knife. That's why we kill people the way we do. We spread the guilt over an entire population to make it manageable, so that we can kill the people we don't want around anymore. God help me, I've met people I thought the world would be better off without. We live an eye for an eye, and Ghandi was wrong: we will not turn the world blind.
There isn't a way to end this column. The world will endure no matter what we choose to do. I support the death penalty, but if I were given the authority, I would abolish it forever, immediately. It can't fix anything. I'm forced now to reconcile a bloodthirsty thought in a peaceful mind. The people we sentence to death could be made to spend their lives atoning, creating, but when I think about the men who have raped people close to me, I want them dead. I don't know what to do with this.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
