Capital Punishment

We watched an old episode of Law & Order on TV the other night. It started off with the execution of a man by lethal injection. They made sure it was plain that he was guilty and deserved to die. The next day I read a passage in Otherland about a lethal injection execution from the viewpoint of the executee. No wonder I'm writing about this.

I am of two minds on Capital Punishment. On one hand there are people who certainly deserve to die, and I am sure the threat of execution does provide a deterrent effect. On the other hand getting someone executed in the Justice system is a disaster. It costs millions of dollars to go through all the required legal contortions, and then it seems like half the time they end up executing the wrong person anyway. (I was gonna say "the wrong guy", but let's give the girls a fair shot, shall we?) I say just lock them up and save us all a lot of grief. No more money wasted on capital punishment appeals, no more executing the wrong guy. No more hair pulling and gnashing of teeth. Well, that last may be asking a bit much.

And then there's lethal injection. Who thought this up? To my mind it is the worst of all possible methods. Endless waiting, being strapped down to a table, not even a chair. And then we use some kind of procedure that looks like something out of a doctors office. What the heck is up with that? No wonder people aren't getting their kids inoculated anymore. Seems to me a bullet in the head would be the most humane way of killing a person. Pull the trigger, and bang, it's all over. You wouldn't even need straps or a chair or any special equipment. Any officer's service revolver would do the trick. Might be a little messier, but death is generally pretty messy.

All I can figure is that there are some closet sadists out there who really want the victim (executee?) to suffer. I can understand that. Instant death often seems to be too good for what some of these people have done. But they aren't allowed to actually torture someone, so they clothe their horrendous execution procedure in weasel words.

Reminds me of a scene from Full Metal Jacket where a team sends one of their men across an open field to check out some buildings. He gets taken down by a sniper. The shot only injures him and he's screaming. The sniper keeps firing intermittently and hitting him, but not killing him, which puts pressure on his teammates to do something. Eventually they track down the sniper and shoot her. She is disabled but not dead and is asking the Americans to shoot her. They stand around a bit arguing the merits of letting her suffer (payback for what she did), but the squad leader ends up shooting and killing her, sparing her further misery.

And while we are talking about confusing humanity with sadism, there was a story I read about horse racing a while back. Can't remember the name of it. But there are race tracks and there are race tracks. Some of them are well run, and some are a little scruffy around the edges, in more ways than one. The protagonist, who works at a "respectable" track relates the tale of a horse that had the misfortune to break a leg at one of the scruffier tracks. It happened on the home stretch, right in front of the Grandstand. They executed the horse on the spot, with a gun. The protagonist derides them for their behavior, saying something to the effect that they could have at least taken the horse around back where it would be out of sight before they "put it down".

Whose welfare was he concerned about? Certainly not the horse's, he's gotten a broken leg, he's not going to get up again. Standard procedure in Western Civilization is put down an injured animal if there is no hope of recovery. So he wants the horse to lie there in misery while he is hauled off behind some barn for the coup-de-grace? Seems like he's more concerned about the sensitivities of the patrons, which I can understand, they are ones who are funding this operation. But don't call it "being humane". Matter of fact, I think all horses who are injured racing should be executed in front of the Grandstand. Maybe then some pressure would be brought to bear on those people who are breeding fragile animals. And make no mistake, some thoroughbreds are very fragile. That's what happens when all you are concerned about is winning.