Allow me to finish my thought from the title of this posting.  The Death Penalty is Wrong the way it is currently administered in most states.

An AP story picked up by the New York Post covered the fact that a man who was convicted of the murder of a topless bar 3 decades ago suffered for 34 minutes before succumbing to the lethal injection.  A representative of an anti-death penalty group wrung his hands as he declared that "if Floridians had witnessed this execution they would demand an end to capital punishment."  The 34 minute process was described as torture.

Too bad.

Personally, I am all for the death penalty as long as it is administered properly.  And lethal injection is not the proper way.  In old movies where the bad guy is walked to the death house he knows that he will die when thousands of volts of electricity courses through his body.  Or he knows that when he hears the pill drop that he will go through agonizing convulsions on his way to hell.  This is how it should be if the death penalty is to be a deterrent.

But we have become a society that is more worried about being humane than handing out justice.  It is real simple.  If you take a life deliberately, you forfeit yours.  And before anyone shoots me an e-mail or posts a reply that life imprisonment is forfeiting ones life, I will agree only if the person is provided with spartan meals, no amenities (such as cable TV, conjugal visits, or continuing education) and they are put to hard labor.  But if you callously kill someone and the taxpayers, including the family and friends of your victim, are going to be footing the bill for your room, board, healthcare, and access to the Playboy channel as you earn a law degree and sue the state because you wanted oatmeal cookies and got chocolate chip, this is not a deterrent.

And lethal injection as it is constituted is not a deterrent.  Drifting off to sleep and then having your life end without pain is suicide by sleeping pills.  And the reason why people commit suicide that way is because it is painless.

As for the recently deceased in Florida, I am glad you suffered for the suffering you brought to your victim and his family.  I will go to confession and confess my pleasure at your pain.  But I know that when the final ledger is read, God will forgive me this transgression while you burn in hades.

Publius