Death Penalty Update

The Alito and his fellow conservative Supremes may have restored the Death Penalty in Kansas, but the New York Assembly has again blocked a Death Penalty restoration bill by a whopping 13-5 margin and two Federal District Court judges have found problems with lethal injections in both Arkansas and Missouri. In Arkansas a stay of execution for one inmate was granted while in Missouri all executions have been suspended. So Missouri joins California, Illinois and New Jersey as a state with a judicial, an executive or a legislative moratorium in place.

Two Chicago Tribune reporters are claiming that Texas, yes Texas again, likely executed an innocent man in 1989. This is starting to get ridiculous. Hello Texas, are you paying attention? If so, then why aren’t you doing something about this?

Dr. Orin Guidry, president of the America Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), has issued a memo reminding members that the ASA has adopted the American Medical Association's position that doctors should not participate in executions and strongly urging members to "steer clear" of any participation in lethal injection executions.

The statement was in reaction to the Missouri ruling where the court said that a board certified anesthesiologist needed to be present.

Dr. Deepak Chopra has joined the chorus of people that are pointing out that the death penalty in the U.S. is irrational. It does not deter crime, risks innocent lives, and isolates the U.S. among the majority of First World nations making us look like a third world despotic regime. Hey wait a minute, with Bush the Unhinged in the Oval Office we ARE a third world despotic regime!

So even a New Age Woo-Woo like Chopra can figure out that the Death Penalty is a bad deal, so WTF is wrong with the rest of us? Is it that we’re not paying attention or are we too busy with counting the days until the next round of American Idol that prevents us from rising as one and putting an end once and for all to this idiocy?

In the meantime, the machinery of execution grinds on. There have been 25 executions in 9 states this year including 13 in Texas, a state that stories of mistakes and incompetence keep appearing about. There are 26 more scheduled including 11 in Texas and the first execution in South Dakota since executions resumed in 1976.

The execution in South Dakota is a volunteer, an individual that has waived all additional appeals. A volunteer was executed in Connecticut last year which was that state’s first execution since 1976. As a matter of fact all four executions that have occurred in the Northeast have been of volunteers. If the South Dakota execution occurs, then it will reduce the number of states that have passed Death Penalty statues but have never used them to four, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey and Kansas.