A bungled execution in Oklahoma in which the condemned prisoner writhed and moaned as he received a lethal injection outraged death-penalty opponents, invited court challenges and attracted worldwide attention.
But the inmate’s agony alone is highly unlikely to change minds about capital punishment in the nation’s most active death-penalty states, where lawmakers say there is little political will to move against lethal injections — and a single execution gone wrong won’t change that.
Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian, a Republican lawmaker who pushed to have state Supreme Court justices impeached for briefly halting Tuesday’s execution, was unsparing.
“I realize this may sound harsh,” Christian said, “but as a father and former lawman, I really don’t care if it’s by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions.”
Posted by Libergirl
