Still and Quietly, Please

Even though the death penalty actually requires no further proof of its inhumanity, the April 29, 2014 execution of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett in the U.S. has once again drawn attention to the brutality of state-sponsored murder.

Because of a problematic lethal injection attempt, Lockett struggled with death for 43 minutes before he agonizingly died of a heart attack. Unfortunately, American society has learned nothing from the dramatic incident. Instead of questioning a state that murders its citizens for revenge, there has been a lot of discussion in the last few months about finding a “puncture-free” and “constitutional” way to kill people.

Since European companies are refusing to send to the U.S. the sodium pentobarbital necessary for the cocktail of death, the Americans have had to look for a substitute. The first two “guinea pigs” were executed on Wednesday. Even though it took an hour for the one of the two convicted murderers to die after the poison had been injected, there was no further discussion.

As long as a death-row inmate dies quietly and still, the death penalty seems to be a non-issue. Even U.S. President Barack Obama was silent yesterday after he had spoken of a “disturbing” execution on April 29. That’s pretty ignorant and cruel for a Nobel Peace Prize winner.