Is lethal injection humane enough? I think that's the question that was being asked by the man who challenged lethal injection as a means of carrying out the death penalty in Virginia's penal system. He was executed yesterday, by the same method that he fought so hard against, lethal injection. Christopher Scott Emmett, who "was convicted of beating a co-worker to death with a brass lamp in 2001 so he could steal the man's money to buy crack cocaine", claimed that death by lethal injection "mounted to cruel and unusual punishment because of the possibility that paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs could be administered before inmates are rendered unconscious by another drug." In other words, the condemned might not be unconscious enough when the other drugs were administered.
How does anyone consider the death penalty 'humane' in the first place? (Although I guess it's more humane than electrocution or hanging or firing squad.) You sentence someone to death; then you have them sitting in a cell for however many years that it takes for the appeal process to go through contemplating his death. Once the appeals are exhausted, you set a date for some future time, and leave him to contemplate his impending death 24hrs a day in a cell. The only thing 'humane' about getting the death penalty is that once it's carried out, the inmate no longer suffers the way he did while sitting on Death Row.
To give them life in prison is more of a penalty; to take away their freedom, to make them have to live inside those gray prison walls, among all those other inmates, and spend the rest of their natural life thinking about the crime they committed, now THAT is punishment! Once he's dead, he's away from it all; no more worrying about anything, from where his food is coming from, to dealing with his conscience on a daily basis.
There's another reason that IMO, the death penalty should be abolished, and it's a very simple one.
If killing another human being is a crime, how is the death penalty not only NOT a crime, but something that's sanctioned, performed, and paid for by the US Government?
2 comments:
I agree with everything you wrote. I think noone has the right to take the life of another. It is not up to us to play God. I have compassion for the victims of crime. Alot of people sentenced to life in prison will tell you that knowing daily that your freedom is revoked forever is a torturous punishment, whereas death is the easiest way out. I have compassion for the victims of a crime, however I have seen cases where even the victims don't want the death penalty inflicted on the defendant. God gives life...who are we to make such an arrogant decision as to take it? (And what if the defendant is later to be found innocent?)
I often wonder about those victims and relatives of victims who don't want the perpetrator to suffer the death penalty; are they really that forgiving? Or is there perhaps an ulterior motive, like maybe they want to take care of the perpetrator themselves?
With all the cases nowadays of people being found to be innocent thanks to DNA and better investigating, I would certainly hate to be on the jury that sentenced someone to death...
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