Tag / capital punishment
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Cruel and Usual
BY SAMUEL KLEIN In a harshly lit room, a physician, an employee of the state, twists open three valves in sequence. Lethal chemicals, often from an undisclosed source, rush down narrow plastic tubing into the veins of a condemned inmate. Within a few minutes, the inmate’s heart stops beating, leaving the body of the vicious…
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Troy Davis: One More Casualty of the Justice System
Outside of a Georgia prison the night of September 21, nearly 500 people sat and hoped to hear something good, news that one man would live to see another day. They waited for hours to learn the outcome, only to hear at 11:08 P.M. that Troy Davis had died of lethal injection. Davis’ tragic story…
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Europe Execution Free for First Time
Amnesty International reported today that 2009 was Europe’s first entirely execution-free year, excepting Belarus, which executed two men. Virtually all European countries have abolished capital punishment, with Western European nations like France, Germany and Britain starting the trend shortly after World War II, and Eastern European countries following suit during the 1980s and 1990s. Since,…
