--- In [email protected], "hugheshugo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Here's a thought, instead of judging rising consciousness purely on > what the dow jones is doing, why not judge it on how many things like > this are going on. > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2182952,00.html > > Surely any vaguely civilized society would have banned this a long > time ago.
You mean banning capital punishment, or banning the problematic lethal-injection formula the Guardian story is reporting on? Because we *are* moving toward more humane forms of execution; and of course there is a major movement to ban it altogether that has been gaining strength. The Supreme Court decision concerning the current lethal injection formula has, in effect, imposed an unofficial moratorium on executions in the U.S., ostensibly until a more humane formula can be developed. But even a temporary moratorium gives those working for abolition of capital punishment time to bring new cases. The work of organizations like the Innocence Project in freeing people who have been unjustly convicted has shown that our judicial system is sufficiently flawed that we risk executing the innocent, and particularly those--primarily minorities--who don't have the resources to obtain good legal representation. Given the virtually insuperable difficulty of *ensuring* guilt, the argument that the death penalty effectively discriminates against low- income people is very powerful constitutionally, and may be what ultimately results in banning capital punishment altogether. In other words, progress is being made; it's just slower than it should be. And it's interesting that in this country, we're probably more likely to ban capital punishment because it's discriminatory than because it's inherently barbaric.
