DEAD MAN TALKING

A year-and-a-half ago I published THE LATEST ASSAULT ON THE DEATH PENALTY: THIS RED HERRING MAY HAVE LEGS (MARCH 12, 2006) because lawyers had come up with a novel approach to stop executions by filing appeals claiming that lethal injections resulted in excruciating pain, thereby violating the cruel punishment prohibition of the Constitution. Such appeals stopped executions in Florida, Missouri and California.

Those red herrings did have legs and now the death penaly is on life support. Last Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the cruel and unusual "pain" appeals in two Kentucky cases. The court ruling will not be handed down before next summer, thereby effectively halting most, if not all, executioons scheduled between now and then. What a shame!!!

Despite reports to the contrary, there is no reliable proof that lethal injections result in excruciating pain, a condition that is masked because the lethal cocktail allegedly paralyzes the prisoner and renders him unable to cry out. All of that is pure conjecture. In this case, the abolitionists have given us nothing but a "dead man talking" scheme to abolish the death penalty.

Last December, Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all pending Florida executions after it took 34 minutes and a rare second dose of chemicals to put a prisoner to death. Abolitionists use this case to bolster their claim that lethal injections are cruel. But, this particular incident resulted from an execution botched by a poorly trained prison guard, rather than from a failure of the drugs. And most noteworthy, there were no reports indicating the prisoner suffered any pain.

A case against lethal injections has been made in California (the land of nuts and fruits) by a member of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesiologists who claimed that the combination of drugs used in executions - sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride - had been rejected by his peers because they would likely cause pain in animals. If that's the best the abolitionists have to offer, there may yet be hope for the death penalty.

Tlhe Supreme Court's decision to hear the lethal injection arguments has reinvigorated the death penalty abolition movement. Who would have thought that a court with a majority of conservative justices would ever consider what I believe to be a frivolous death penalty issue?

Newspaper editorials across the nation are now calling for a halt to executions until the court renders its decision on the lethal injection issue. The left, with its rabid opposition to the death penalty, is jumping up and down with joy. Now it is no longer inconceivable that a conservative court may yet rule the death penalty itself, no matter the method of execution, to be cruel and unusual punishment.

The irony of it all is that lethal injections came into being as a more humane way of executing prisoners than by electrocution, gas, hanging or firing squad, methods which are all still legal. Of the 38 states with death penalties, ten still allow electrocutions, five still allow death by gas, two still allow hanging and two others allow death by firing squad. In 37 states, lethal injection is the preferred method of execution, while Nebraska requires execution by electrocution.

Lost in the arguments over lethal injections and the call for an end to the death penalty, is any concern for the murder victims and their loved ones. God help us if those vicious killers who inflicted so much pain on their victims should themselves be made to suffer some pain.

If you read my blog of March 12, 2006, you know there is good empirical evidence that the death penalty served as a deterrent to premeditated murder, especially during the years before it became common for the condemned to stay alive for up to 20 years or so because of endless appeals.

The abolitionists claim the death penalty does not act as a deterrent. They say it is merely an act of revenge. Revenge may be the Lord's, but I say revenge is sweet. Texas is referred to as the execution capitol of the world. MAKES ME PROUD TO BE A TEXAN! I hope the Supreme Court does not remove the death penalty from life support. I pray that the court will help it make a full recovery to enjoy a long, long life.