Till Death

For those of you who often disagree with these commentaries, get ready to be upset. What happened last week in Oklahoma only confirmed my longtime belief that capital punishment is wrong.

Clayton Lockett was tortured to death in an Oklahoma prison as the result of an inefficiently-applied combination of experimental drugs in what ironically was to be a “humane” execution. Did the prisoner deserve to be punished? About as much as anyone I can think of. He shot a young girl and buried her alive.

But if the level of horror in the commission of a capital crime is the standard of measurement, shouldn’t all child murders be executed? And if we can all agree that putting a criminal to sleep will probably not act as a deterrent to violent crime, what would? Could we be guaranteed fewer murders if televised guillotine executions were a part of our justice system?

Arizona has said it will be using the same Oklahoma drug cocktail for its next execution, but that this time it will work. Gee, I’m already beginning to feel more civilized.

I’m Pat McMahon.

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