The Garden State Knows How to Roll

New Jersey's legislature passed a ban on the death penalty this week, becoming the first state in 40 years to enact such a ban.

Good job New Jersey. You have learned, as most of our mothers told us as young'uns that two wrongs do not, in fact, make a right. As the article points out,

The bill was introduced in November, after a state commission concluded capital punishment does not prevent violent crime, and could lead to innocent people being executed.

Let's hope other states catch on soon. Thank god Michigan doesn't have the death penalty.

Can't even get that right

The mother of an executed prisoner in Ohio has sued the head of Ohio's prisons because her son's execution took 90 minutes. Apparently executions should only take 20 minutes or so. Who knew?

The most chilling part of the article:

Prison staff had problems finding a useable vein on Clark, and one vein they did use collapsed. The execution team also apparently tried to administer the lethal drugs through the original IV line by mistake, according to written accounts that the execution team is required to submit.

During the first injection attempt, Clark finally pushed himself up and said, “It don’t work.”

During the second attempt at finding a vein, he asked, “Can you just give me something by mouth to end this?”

Could you imagine having to wait that long? I mean, that is without even discussing the pain possibly involved.

I'm vehemently anti-death penalty. That is not a question here though...it's simply, how much torture must a person endure? And who are we to inflict that torture?