Witnesses watched through a window at an Alabama prison as Kenneth Eugene Smith became the nation's first person to be put to death using nitrogen gas.
The number of people who have been released after decades in prison after modern forensic techniques (e.g. DNA analysis) have proven the convicted person was innocent shows why execution should never be used. Better that a guilty person spend a life in jail instead of be executed than an innocent person be executed by mistake.
This case was even better. The sentencing jury voted to give him life without parole. The state appealed that and a judge overturned the life sentence to give him a death sentence.
So, are we to be his equal? A society that feels comfortable killing its fellow human beings painfully. Or do we aspire to be better. To not seek revenge but merely to minimize harm done.
And does the 8th amendment matter anymore? Does it still stand? Cruelty as we execute surely must violate it.
How did his victim feel when he murdered her? If this monster suffered for a few minutes, so be it.
The number of people who have been released after decades in prison after modern forensic techniques (e.g. DNA analysis) have proven the convicted person was innocent shows why execution should never be used. Better that a guilty person spend a life in jail instead of be executed than an innocent person be executed by mistake.
This case was even better. The sentencing jury voted to give him life without parole. The state appealed that and a judge overturned the life sentence to give him a death sentence.
Why do we even have a jury?
So, are we to be his equal? A society that feels comfortable killing its fellow human beings painfully. Or do we aspire to be better. To not seek revenge but merely to minimize harm done.
And does the 8th amendment matter anymore? Does it still stand? Cruelty as we execute surely must violate it.
That’s just your emotional side talking. Who knew you were so sensitive.