So....they tried to put this 50 year old woman to death in Tennessee for a murder they committed when they were 18. It was a controversial case, I remember reading some articles before it happened, some wanted to call it off and appeal it, given she went through some sexual assault trauma that might have affected our mental state, but our illustrious conservative supreme court was like "nah, go ahead." So they went ahead with it.
Well...it ended....badly. Very badly. Lethal injection has been debated a lot in recent years. In theory it's humane. You stick a needle in their arm, they go to sleep and...die. But then other countries who manufactured the drugs used in it were like "we don't want our stuff being used to kill people", so the US has been forced to shift to less reliable drugs to kill people. And sometimes, it doesn't work. And this was one of those times. They couldnt' find a vein, then the drug didn't work. Apparently she was whimpering in pain and noted her arm felt like it was gonna explode, which was a sign that they botched the whole thing. And then after an hour of basically torturing this woman, they took her to the hospital, and now apparently she's unconscious and on a ventilator.
And that's it. They took her to the hospital...after trying to kill her. And she's unconscious, and on a respirator, if they took the respirator out, she would die, but they're apparently trying to take care of her..for what, so they can kill her again? Death penalty is weird. I get it, the doctors have an oath to do no harm and to care for people, but the whole point of this was to kill her. And it failed...kinda, although if they let nature take its course, it would be a success. A messy success but a success nonetheless. But yeah, now she's in the hospital taking care of her...so they can presumably kill her again at a later date.
Honestly, we should just let her live. Even if I were pro death penalty, I'd be tempted to be like, nah, you survive the attempt and can walk away, you deserve to get your sentence commuted. But let's face it, I'm NOT pro death penalty. This never should have happened. The death penalty is outdated and barbaric. Maybe it made sense in an era in which not killing people meant that they would continue to be a menace to society, but prisons are rather secure these days, and the death penalty is, if anything, less convenient. Because we dont support cruel and unusual punishment, so if we ARE doing to do it, we need to find the least painful ways possible. This was supposed to be that way, but apparently it doesnt work half the time. And then considering the legal procedures to make it just, it ends up costing more in legal appeals to kill someone than to keep them alive. So it just doesn't make sense.
I've actually always been against the death penalty, it's been an issue I've been most consistent on in my life. As a christian, I didnt think it was up to us to take a life, and that it was up to God. As a secularist, I still largely view it as inhumane, supporting life in prison instead for those who should never be part of society again. Ironically, as a secularist, I'm more sympathetic toward it than I was as a christian. As a christian I was dogmatically against it on principle, and refused to even consider it. But I do kind of get the desire for revenge that people have, and I even have the base urges where in SOME circumstances, I honestly think that what someone did is F-ed up enough where I can see why people would WANT it. But...at the same time, my higher principles still say no, we should let them live. And honestly, given our legal framework and the issues with it, yeah, I'm largely opposed to it. And in a case like this, I'm definitely against this. First of all, it seems like yeah, she had issues going on that should have lessened the sentence, and second of all, we're doing this THIRTY YEARS later. like, she's almost 3x the age of what she was when the crime was committed. And again keep in mind what I said earlier. I kinda get the fiery passion for revenge, but this isn't it. This is this cold and clinical thing where this woman spent 60% of her life waiting to die for a crime she committed when she was young. it's like, okay, the fire and passion is kinda out of it by this point. I mean, it doesn't make a ton of sense to me. And in terms of her being a future threat to society, she isn't, she just comes off as some lady. Not saying she should ever be allowed in public again, but again, life in prison seems...fine here. No need to drag it out or make it worse than it is.
Honestly, if we ARE going to have the death penalty, the people involved should have committed really egregious stomach churning crimes. Not just like a simple murder, but like, ya know, the worst of the worst. Think war criminals, people who participated in the holocaust and were true believers in it, that sorta thing. They should be a threat to society. And we should have as close to 100% certainty that they committed the crime as possible. Im not talking "reasonable doubt" here, like ALL doubt. Innocence project ended up finding a lot of people on death row didn't even belong there, and we've certainly executed innocent people before.
Even then, I wouldn't be for it, because I still hold those higher principles against it. Again, life in prison is fine to me. I try to keep passion out of it and think rationally and principled.
As for HOW to do it...that's another problem. What IS the best method. lethal injection SHOULD be simple, but it isn't and it fails A LOT with situations like this. Gas can torture people too. The green mile shows what happens when the electric chair goes wrong. Hanging can either be instant or it can fail and be messed up. Same with the guillotine. Firing squad can be messy too. The fact is, there isn't really a simple, fool proof way to kill someone without the possibility of it being botched and torturing them instead. And maybe we just shouldn't have the death penalty.
Again, my ultimate opinion is the death penalty in and of itself violates cruel and unusual punishment. Killing someone is, by definition, cruel and unusual unless they are suffering and desire it. I dont think there's a good way to do it. I dont generally agree with the process of it. I mean, we sentence someone to death and then like 30 years later we finally kill them when the appeals process runs out? By then the whole fiery revenge instinct is just...dead in my view. And that in itself is cruel. The waiting is cruel. The fighting for life legally is cruel. Just give them life in prison without a chance of parole and move on already. This whole process is F-ed up. Most countries already banned the practice. We should too. But conservative be conservatives, and conservatives have a messed up moral compass so they're like LET'S KEEP THIS. Again, I just can't be for this in practice. And honestly, this woman's sentence should be commuted to life in prison if she ever actually does wake up again (still wild we're keeping her alive on a ventilator when the whole point of the thing that put her there was to kill her). And yeah, F the death penalty. Abolish it.
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