Much as I applaud the willingness of many just and moral US states to
execute the worst of killers - the system used is anathema to
me.
Surely, it is not beyond the wit of Congress to come
up with a system designed specifically for death penalty cases incorporating: checks,
balances, appeals against conviction, appeals against sentence, stays, etc all
compacted into - say - a 12 month period.
Keeping people alive for what, in many cases, would be
the equivalent of a life sentence and then to execute seems too much like a
double sentencing exercise to me.
If anything about capital punishment be 'cruel and
unusual' - then that is surely it.
Oh, I know that it would be an enormously complicated
legal and constitutional exercise - but for the sake of both Justice and Mercy -
surely, it must be worth the effort.
(Why do I get the feeling that the left and the
do-gooders actually revel in the cruelty of these long time periods - because it
shows the system in such a poor light?)
