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Our heroes
have historically fought for "Truth, Justice, and the American
Way." Consider this just one American's search for the truth
of what exactly is the American Way - and an exploration of whether
we, as Americans, are doing it justice...
If you tried to sell death-penalty stock on Wall
Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission would have you
prosecuted for fraud. Capital punishment doesn't achieve any of
the things its backers promise it will, and it is a spectacular
waste of time and money.
Among the major Western nations, the United States has for a
long while been alone in punishing murderers with some form of
execution. Why do we hang on to the penalty? For one thing, we're
suckered by our politicians into thinking we're more bloodthirsty
than we really are. But also, maybe we're still addicted to the
religious fundamentalism (Old Testament approval of lethal vengeance)
that's been a part of our social thinking since colonial days.
Or maybe we still feel a residual pull to the savage entertainment
(bare-knuckle boxing, eye-gouging wrestling, eight-inch-knife
fights a la Jim Bowie) of frontier days.
Capital punishment fits right in with those entertainments. But
why has the job of running this grisly circus been turned over
to such knuckleheads? Americans are supposed to be scientifically
proficient, and electricity and deadly chemicals have certainly
been around long enough for us to get the hang of using them.
But time after time our brilliant executioners have messed up.
Michael Radelet, an authority on capital punishment, has compiled
a list of thirty-two botched executions since 1982. These from
Florida will give you an idea of why they don't allow the public
to attend.
When Jesse Joseph Tafero was electrocuted in 1990, witnesses
said footlong blue and orange flames shot from the right side
of his bobbing head. It took four minutes and three 2,000-volt
jolts to finish him off (later, evidence came to light indicating
he was innocent of murder). When Pedro Medina was electrocuted
in 1997, it happened again. Flames from his head. When the execution
was finished, the fire was patted out by a maintenance supervisor
wearing asbestos gloves. Another official opened a window to disperse
the smoke in the execution chamber. State officials decided it
was time to retire "Old Sparky," as they fondly called
the chair, and build a new one. Allen Lee Davis was the first
to sit in it, last year. The executioner pulled the switch and
blood poured from Davis's mouth. OK, that did it. It was time
for something new to improve appearances. Florida would try poison.
On June 8, 2000, Bennie Demps lay on the gurney while technicians
struggled for thirty-three minutes to get the needle into four
veins in three places. Demps shouted into the microphone dangling
over his head: "They butchered me back there. I was in a
lot of pain. They cut me in the groin, they cut me in the leg.
I was bleeding profusely." The warden of the penitentiary
claimed Demps was just "griping." What a bad sport.
When you come right down to it, these botched executions are
merely sideshows and beside the point. Someday the penal folks
will probably manage to get all the kinks in the execution process
smoothed out and they'll be able to kill without a lot of flames
and needle-jabbing. But the big question will remain: Why do we
want this circus anyway?
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