{"id":133004,"date":"2017-03-09T09:30:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T16:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/09\/finding-a-humane-way-to-be-inhumane.html"},"modified":"2017-03-09T09:30:25","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T16:30:25","slug":"finding-a-humane-way-to-be-inhumane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/09\/finding-a-humane-way-to-be-inhumane.html","title":{"rendered":"Finding a humane way to be inhumane"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a society, America is really schizophrenic about capital punishment. By and large we want it (based on a social myth that only the guilty are ever executed), but we want it to be clean and tidy and "humane" (not excruciatingly painful in appearance or, if possible, fact).<\/p>\n

But killing people is, per se, messy. The body does not go quietly into that good night when being shoved there. The embarrassing number of botched lethal injections[1] over the past several years has led to any number of debates, discussions, and arguments over what forms of capital punishment may be best in this way, and a recent appeal to the Supreme Court (denied) by one death row prisoner asking for a firing squad rather than lethal injection highlighted one older option, though never one widely used (firing squads tend to be psychologically rough on the actual shooters, among other things).<\/p>\n

Is it time to resurrect the guillotine? The device was originally invented as a more humane alternative to an axe, and as a purely mechanical device I'm pretty sure we can make it nearly foolproof in terms of its killing capability. Of course, it has the downside of being gruesomely messy — but maybe, as a society, we should be required to put up with that if we're going to be killing people by society's law.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

[1] Defined as lingering deaths where there was an appearance — or even speech — indicating that it was prolonged and painful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nIs The Firing Squad More Humane Than Lethal Injection?<\/a><\/span>
\nLast week, the Supreme Court responded to a petition from a death row inmate in Alabama containing an unusual demand: He wanted to be executed by firing squad. The prisoner, a 75-year-old man named…\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a society, America is really schizophrenic about capital punishment. By and large we want it (based on a social myth that only the guilty are ever executed), but we want it to be clean and tidy and "humane" (not excruciatingly painful in appearance or, if possible, fact). But killing people is, per se, messy. … Continue reading “Finding a humane way to be inhumane”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41554,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/28\/the-american-way-of-death-execution-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":133004,"position":0},"title":"The American Way of Death (Execution Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 28-Mar-14 8:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Even if one leaves aside the documented flakiness of the judicial system in accurately identifying who truly deserves to die ...... it is unconscionable that such government-performed\u00a0killing on behalf of the citizenry should be anything less than quick, painless, and final.If it's okay for someone to suffer strangulation for half\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136196,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/02\/making-prison-a-bit-less-humane-a-bit-less-hopeful.html","url_meta":{"origin":133004,"position":1},"title":"Making prison a bit less humane, a bit less hopeful","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-May-18 5:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Prison serves three purposes: to incarcerate (segregate criminals from the general population), to punish (discouraging criminals from committing crimes in the future), and to rehabilitate (to give criminals the ability to rejoin society someday in a productive fashion). 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Death penalty states illegally imported drugs for executions despite warnings States are locked in legal battle with the federal government after regulators intercepted illegally imported anesthetics to be used in lethal injections\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22462,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/31\/bryan-fischer-is-a-dolt-theres-no-testament-like-old-testament-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":133004,"position":4},"title":"Bryan Fischer is a Dolt (There’s No Testament Like Old Testament Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 31-Aug-11 11:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days running, Bryan? \u00a0You think I'm just made of screediness? 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