For the second week in a row, a death penalty story from the West is the headliner. Arizona executed convicted murderer Joseph Wood on Wednesday afternoon by lethal injection. His death took almost two hours. Some believe that Wood was gasping and snorting throughout and view it as a botched execution (see this Slate article), others argue that Wood was sedated in the first few minutes and did nothing but snore thereafter (see this Arizona DOC news release). Last-minute litigation in the case focused on Arizona’s refusal to reveal the precise drugs to be used to execute Wood. Perhaps presciently, Judge Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit wrote in the course of that litigation that “[t]he enterprise [of lethal injection] is flawed. Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and peaceful . . . . But executions are, in fact, nothing like that. They are brutal, savage events, and nothing the state tries to do can mask that reality. Nor should it. . . . If some states and the federal government wish to continue carrying out the death penalty, they must turn away from this misguided path and return to more primitive—and foolproof—methods of execution. The guillotine is probably best but seems inconsistent with our national ethos. . . . The firing squad strikes me as the most promising. Eight or ten large-caliber rifle bullets fired at close range can inflict [...]
Faculty Coordinators
