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