death penalty redux

this is simply horrifying. angel diaz, a convicted murderer in florida, took 34 minutes to die because his executioners did not insert the IV needle correctly. after this debacle, florida has temporarily suspended executions pending an investigation. the same article discusses california's record of botching executions, including that of stanley tookie williams. they have also temporarily suspended executions pending an investigation.

i'm very troubled by the conflicting accounts from florida, which i read about in a previous version of this article but that don't appear in this version. i wonder why. the "official" statement about angel diaz's execution said that witnesses did not see any evidence that diaz was in pain during the execution. this conflicts with quoted statements from reporters who witnessed the execution, and who said that diaz appeared to grimace in pain, his throat was spasming, and he appeared to be trying to speak.

i will spare you my anti-death penalty rant for now. i know people will say that what these two men suffered is "nothing" compared to what their alleged victims suffered. ok, but...first, this assumes that these two men actually committed the crimes for which they were sentenced to die. either way, though, the U.S. system of "justice" is not supposed to be about revenge or retribution, but about rehabilitation. the fact that we even allow the death penalty, coupled with this "retributive justice" / "eye for an eye" rhetoric that surrounds it certainly exposes "rehabilitation" as a fiction, doesn't it? the typical response here is something like, "these people are evil, they are a cancer on society that needs to be excised."

and that's where my aforementioned rant kicks in, so i'll leave it for now. suffice it to say that i disagree with the evil/cancer theory of crime. and as for the death penalty itself, i say, "not in my name."

(edited later)here is a more complete article on the subject.