Ah, Oklahoma.
I was stuck there for eight years after I got off of active duty with the U.S. Army. The people there tend to be standoffish, the food bland and boring, and the landscape various shades of tan and brown. The philosophy, politics, and religion all tend to be one of hard right conservativism, hard right evangelical Christianity, and a barely concealed hatred of people of other races. They love hearing about criminals being executed. Yet, despite these attitudes,?death row inmates are fighting any more executions until the state gets approval. What is happening now amounts to illegal drug experimentation.
Oklahoma wants to be just like Texas in many ways, one of which is executions. I worked as an academic instructor in a correctional facility in Oklahoma when the last execution occurred. My students, all of which were inmates from California, were amazed. They were amazed that the execution happened in the first place, and that it went so horribly wrong. What amazed, sickened, and saddened me was the response from commenters on message boards in the local news websites. Many were cheering the painful execution, some offered to do it themselves, and many questioned the expense of it. Not once did they take into consideration that this was a human being.
I am torn on the subject of the death penalty. In my opinion, if someone commits certain heinous crimes, and is proven guilty without a shadow of doubt, the time between conviction and execution should be about seventy two hours. However, any doubt at all to the guilt of the accused should be met with life imprisonment. The taking of a life should never be lightly considered.
This being said,the horrendously callous manner in which Oklahoma conducts executions is unacceptable and inhumane. Recently, the drugs that were used for this purpose are no longer being made available, which has caused these states to resort to untested and unapproved combinations of drugs. Truthfully, it would be more humane to use hanging again than to use these combinations of drugs.
If we must execute a human being for heinous crimes, it should be as quick and painless as possible. This execution was not.
We also, as a nation, need to rethink our criminal justice system, as there seems to be very little justice contained within it.Every society has individuals who do not abide by the accepted rules and laws governing behavior. This has been true since humans first gathered in cities. These individuals need to be repaired and rehabilitated so they are once again productive members of society.In extreme cases, they must be dealt with, but how? I believe America has seriously lost its way when it comes to how we treat people. Torture, extrajudicial executions, and even state sanctioned executions are excused and even applauded. Is this the society the Founding Fathers envisioned with the creation of the Constitution?
I think not.
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