Reflections on the Death Penalty

Most recently, California has placed a moratorium on the death penalty. A recent execution in California by legal injection took almost thirty minutes to be completed. Claims that this method causes excruciating pain and the inability to cry out have been quite well refuted from a medical point of view by the high court which turned down a recent appeal by a death row prisoner.

There were documented large areas on each forearm of the condemned where the intravenous fluids had infiltrated under the skin. Little notice and less comment resulted from this observation, which was pregnant with meaning: It was clear evidence that both IV sites had infiltrated, thus causing considerable pain and dramatic alteration of the expected effects on consciousness. The fact that the second IV site was also infiltrated has a serious implication: that the extravasation was obvious with the first IV, and as a consequence the second was started. It is reasonable to assume that the second site was also observed to be infiltrated, but that it was decided that nothing was to be done.

The gruesome and inescapable conclusions are, therefore, that the first site infiltration provoked a decision to start the second. Subsequently, the second botched IV was simply allowed to continue, with the intent that the condemned would eventually die--hopfully--without further embarrassment to the medical and custodial staff.

It is a common practice in execution by firing squad for one shooter to have a blank rather than a live round. The intention is never denied--so that each shooter can entertain the hope that he did not fire the fatal shot.

This latter practice speaks volumes: We show hommage to capital punishment by volunteering to be an assassin--as long as it is accompanied by the statistical self-delusion that we really may not have been one, in effect.

Why don't we insist that all shooters have bullets, so that there is no question that justice was done, and that each and every man with a gun is committed to the role of implimenting justice? Why didn't the medical team jump on the opportunity to re-start the IV to ensure that the law was either to be carried out, to the letter--or not at all?

There is impassioned demonstration by a gathered crowd at each execution held by those who oppose capital punishment; yet you rarely see comparable demonstrations routinely by those who favor it. Virtually no one feels comfortable with the notion of capital punishment.

Even so, we have a sense of justice, however uneasy we may feel. Moreover, we feel we owe it to the families of the deceased, particularly when we hear them tell us that the execution has brought them some measure of closure, some deference to the notion of a society that shows its caring for the innocent by the execution of those who would take a life.

We watch eagerly and feel better for a moment when we see testimonies by aggrieved relatives that they are a little or a lot more a peace. We rarely see quoted statements by the families that the death by execution accomplishes nothing whatever, or more rarely, that they are opposed to it.

At the same time, we pale when we receive word that, not only are there dozens of men on death row who have be exonerated once DNA evidence had been made available, but also that numerous men and women have been executed for crimes, it later is shown, they simply did not commit.

It was a courageous Governor Ryan of Illinois who on January 31, 2000 paroled 156 men on death row when several of such cases came to light. It therefore came as no surprise when In 2001, amidst growing charges of favoritism and in particular granting, he resigned. Over the previous year, facts came to light regarding influence-peddling, etc., resulting in an indictment and conviction on 18 counts.

Whatever culpability Ryan had, he was one among the ranks of comparable criminals in Illinois government who did exactly the same and worse. In view of the known politics of Illinois, together with the demonstrable lack of financial gain to Gov. Ryan, and the courage to take a profoundly moral stand, It is a reasonable inference that he paid the price for his integrity.

However conflicted we personally may be--or should be--about the death penalty, there are far more powerful and dark forces that have no intention to see it end.

Ryan literally saved 156 men and was punished. Saddam Hussein was executed for allegedly ordering the death of 145 people. Bush is directly responsible for the death of 3003, so far.

There's an irony here. I'm not sure what it is exactly.