Innovative Ways To Carry Out The Death Penalty

  • Sunday, September 7, 2014
Oh fudge.
 
For some reason, I decided to read the news.
 
Yes, I'm talking about the Associated Press review of the recent Tennessee State legislative session.
 
Like most people, I try to not pay attention to these things.
 
But it turns out that recent events have encouraged me to take a closer look.
 
Oh my.
 
We in Tennessee are clearly a concerned and evolved people.
 
We are much better than ISIS, the radical crazies of the Islamic State of Iran and Syria who have recently beheaded 2 U.S.
journalists..
 
Who could possibly equate our elected official's endorsements with the political activities of ISIS?
 
Unless we look at the situation closer.
 
You see, it turns out that political perspectives often override ethical considerations.
 
If I decide you need to die, and I have power, I can make you die.
 
It's easy enough.
 
But there's a problem. 
 
The Europeans have stopped selling us the drugs we need to kill people.
And as a result, there have been several recent botched execution attempts.
 
(By the way, the primitive country of Mexico will not extradite a criminal to the United States if that person faces a death penalty, because they believe such a penalty is immoral.)
Earlier in my medical career, I interviewed for a job as the medical director of the Texas Department of Corrections. 
 
I guess God was watching  over me, as I did not get the job.
 
If I had started that job, I would have overseen the largest number of executions (we do not call it premeditated murder) of any state in this country.
 
What do you think of this? 
 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Senate has voted to allow the state to electrocute death row inmates if lethal injection drugs cannot be obtained.
The measure sponsored by Sen. Ken Yager passed on a 23-3 vote on Wednesday.
The Harriman Republican said current law allows the state to use its alternate execution method only when lethal injection drugs are not legally available. But Yager said there was no provision for what do if there was a shortage of those drugs.
A House committee approved a bill Tuesday morning that would make electrocution the state's method for killing inmates sentenced to death if lethal injection were declared unconstitutional or the drugs needed to carry it out were unavailable. But a handful of members said they have reservations about the electric chair, which the state has used only once since 1960.
"It seems barbaric to me," said state Rep. Darren Jernigan, D-Nashville. "I'd rather go with the gas chamber, myself. ... The electric chair bothers me."
Tennessee switched to lethal injection when it brought back the death penalty in the 1990s, but lawmakers gave inmates the option of choosing the electric chair for crimes committed before Jan. 1, 1999. One inmate, Daryl Keith Holton, was electrocuted in 2007.
In recent years, lethal injection has come under scrutiny. Death penalty opponents have pressed manufacturers to stop making available the drugs used in lethal injections, and courts have begun to weigh whether the method really produces the painless death that supporters claim. That has led state officials to reconsider electrocution, which the attorney general said last month never has been found unconstitutional.
Jernigan noted some states allow death by firing squad. 
State Rep. Kent Williams, I-Elizabethton, said that method did not phase him either.
"That'd be the easiest way to go," he said, adding, "I don't know why we got away from hanging."
"We're wanting to make sure that these people on death row go ahead and get the just sentence that they deserve," Powers replied. But some members still weren't convinced.
"I just kind of feel that some kind of injection is a more humane way … than it is, I think, to just fry somebody," said state Rep. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar.
"Our job is not to judge. Our job is to arrange the meeting between the (defendant) and the creator, for him to judge," Powers said.
 
Fair enough.
 
In my opinion, I think the best use of public resources would be simple beheading. However, I think we should have at least 100,000 persons signed up to watch the live broadcast.
 
And they should pay $20 each for the live feed.   That way, it will make economic sense.
 
After all, (although the death penalty has never been shown to have a detrimental effect upon future crime) we need entertainment.
 
That's ethical and makes common sense.
 
Matthew Hine, M.D., MPH.
Latest Headlines
Opinion
Send Your Opinions To Chattanoogan.com; Include Your Full Name, Address, Phone Number For Verification
  • 3/29/2024

We welcome your opinions at Chattanoogan.com. Email to news@chattanoogan.com . We require your real first and last name and contact information. This includes your home address and phone ... more

Capitol Report From State Rep. Greg Vital For March 28
  • 3/28/2024

Budget becomes central focus in final weeks of 113th General Assembly Members of the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee this week were briefed by Finance and Administration Commissioner ... more