From Canada: America's death penalty debate gets a lethal injection
Source: CBC News
By Neil Macdonald
... You'd think American authorities, who've been executing people almost non-stop since the days of the 13 colonies, would be pretty good at it by now.
... America, though, is America, with its unique mixture of fundamentalist religiosity and legal humanity.
Its courts have basically held that that while killing by the state is appropriate, it shouldn't be messy. And that has left prisons with the rather challenging job of ending human life in an orderly fashion.
... Somewhat logically, frustrated Republican legislators in death penalty states are now suggesting a return to firing squads or (in Virginia) the electric chair. After all, they say, there is no constitutional right here to a painless death.
... At that moment, though, America would have to face the barbaric reality of a practice it shares not with most other democracies, but with the likes of China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/america-s-death-penalty-debate-gets-a-lethal-injection-neil-macdonald-1.2523385
warrant46
(2,205 posts)For Christ
longship
(40,416 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)bossy22
(3,547 posts)the death penalty has enjoyed popular support throughout polling history http://www.gallup.com/poll/165626/death-penalty-support-lowest-years.aspx
In fact, even in countries that have banned the death penalty- it still enjoys a decent amount of public support http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/3802
Personally, I'm against the death penalty but to insinuate that it is some how anti-democratic is just plain silly