Cruel and Unusual

The supreme court is hearing arguments today in a death penalty case. The issue here is not guilt or innocence, or even the constitutionality of the death penalty itself, but rather the method of execution. The contention is that the current method - a cocktail of three drugs - may cause undue suffering to the inmate, and thus constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

I think it's fairly obvious that the death penalty itself is cruel, and it's become pretty unusual in Western democracies. All of Europe has banned capital punishment, as has Canada and Mexico. Although this case is not about the abolition of the death penalty, I hope it sparks national debate on the topic. It's time the US joined the rest of the modern world and stopped executing prisoners - especially in light of the recent exonerations. Since 1973, 126 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. From 2000 to 2007 there has been an average of 5 exonerations per year.

We have no idea how many people may have been put to death wrongly, but it's safe to say that even one is too many. If we are to call ourselves civilized, we must treat even our prisoners with dignity and compassion.

Of course, our current administration disagrees...

Which of the Presidential hopefuls will have the courage to step up and take a stand on this? Does the death penalty stance of a candidate affect your feelings toward them, or are there more pressing issues for you? Do you think the Black Pope is a bleeding heart hippy liberal? Feel free to comment - anonymously if you wish - and we'll have ourselves a regular ol' cyber-salon right here...