Arkansas Blog

On behalf of me and about 10 friends, THANK YOU AT.

Thanks for this Max.

Does this mean that they will be on Channel 18?

That will be a terrific deterrant to one side or the other, or perhaps both.

ARK. BLOG: The suit doesn't seek public broadcast, only public access to the complete process.

I agree with the Steve Earle philosophy on the death penalty. In the United States, the state is (supposed to be) the people. When the state kills someone, they do it in my name, whether I like it or not. Every execution destroys a little piece of my soul. When you work against the death penalty, you're saving my soul.

So, thanks for that.

Thanks to Max, et.al., for your work on the suit, and to Steve Earle (via Archaeopteryx) for saying it better than I could.

I'll be curious to see who would oppose more transparency and why.

Fletch, if they throw a public killing or two don't be too surprised at who shows up. Never underestimate America's taste for kill'in. After all I was part of the millions who watched, via YouTube, Saddam hang.

My humor is way to dry. People don't get me.

UPDATE: The spokesman for the prison system says the procedures it follows are meant in part to protect the inmate. Yep. You read that right.
Posted by Max Brantley

This is in keeping with their policy of swabbing the condemned's arm with alcohol before inserting the needles. Cuts down on post mortem infections, you know.

Max, great idea. I only hope you'll as well publish the Governor's staff summary that he uses to decide commutation or execution for each case. I'm pretty sure if folks read the heinous things that have been done for someone to get the harshest of penalties and they see how peacefully that same murderer passes that the death-penalty debate will be everyone else against about eight who are left with Betsy and the ACLU.

Theodosius, you are so missing the point. It's NOT about the person accused of the crime, it's about US and what we are made of and how civilized we are.

Doesn't matter how "peacefully that same murderer passes" or how heinous the crime, it's about how we deal with problems. Do we deal with them with violence, therefore showing we are very much like those that murder, or do we deal with them by preventing further crime but not going for revenge?

Until we understand that the answer to violence is not violence in kind, but containment, we will continue to be an immature society.

Rab, I'd start by asking you to read your comment for the patronizing tone and the smug intellectual superiority. I can live with it if you can.

I don't happen to think the death penalty is about revenge. If so, we would sanction the victim's kin to carry it out. The death penalty is about justice - consequences of criminal actions that are measured and comensurate to the crime.

To be sure, it is a form of "containment", but again that is not even the primary purpose.

I think it is the very fact that we are willing to value life enough to require the ultimate penalty in return, while committing to keep the execution itself as humane as possible, that keeps us mature and moral. Anythinkg else is lazy and self-deluding (smug intellectual superiority acknowledged).

(And pardon the early-morning spelling errors...)

"I think it is the very fact that we are willing to value life enough to require the ultimate penalty in return..."

I can't believe that you can't see the doublespeak in that statement.

"The death penalty is about justice - consequences of criminal actions that are measured and comensurate to the crime."

This, of course, is also laughable. There is no justice is the way the death penalty is meted out. If you're poor, or black, or male, you're much more likely to receive a death sentence than someone who is rich, or white, or female. Over a hundred people have been released from death row after being cleared of the crime for which they were convicted. Is killing innocent people about justice?