Execution Methods and the Constitution.
The 8'th Amendment specifies that punishment for a crime cannot be "cruel and unusual". This rules out punishments like crucifixion. OK, what about death by lethal injection? Most every developed country gave up on the death penalty in favour of life in jail for the case of murder. One could argue that life in jail is actually worse than a decently humane method of death. It's hard to think of things more nightmarish than time in an American prison.
Now for something that'll sound like right out of the book _Freakonomics_. Punishment is finite but crime can be infinite. But punishment can get severe. One can see that time in prison is a nightmare come true by means of MSNBC and the series about prisons called "Lockup". Forensic science has gotten good enough that if you are going to commit a crime you will be most likely caught. This creates the "frealonomic" situation that one may as well commit suicide after a murder. That is, unless you want to run up a tab on the taxpayers!
As above, punishment is finite. Even if you kill 6 million people (like Hitler) you can get killed only _once_. Due to the exact situation in a prison, a hapless drunk driver going to prison for Reckless Homicide may well get AIDS or never exit the prison alive. For a drunk, it's not "worth it" to try to drive from that bar. But for a murderer it may well be "worth it" to commit suicide after the crime. After all, you avoid prosecution! This fact explains the school style suicide gunman and the suicide bomber. If you catch a murderer, you can only punish him by death once. If the probability of capture approaches a 1 then the killer may as well "get it over with".
As it turns out, crime and punishment has gotten like Booleanism. Either you commit the crime or you do not... and you die as the result or you do not - only by not doing the crime. Now for the fun part. If we are going to kill criminals as a punishment, we must find a humane method. So far, "lethal injection" is the execution method of choice. The lethal injection method goes like this:
A criminal is strapped to a gurney and an IV drip is started. The hose is hooked up to a machine. 3 drugs are inserted, first an anesthetic to knock out the prisoner, then a curare derivative is added to paralise him, then potassium chloride to cause a heart attack on purpose.
The problem comes up where the prisoner is a druggie and is all but immune to the sodium thiopenthol. With the second drug he is in "locked-in syndrome" aka anesthesia awareness, as the last drug is administered. All too many people underwent this "locked-in syndrome" during surgery as anesthesiologists have skimped on the knock-out dope. Some have actually commited suicide due to the X-Treme nightmarish situation of undergoing surgery while awake and being curare paralised. THIS situation of lethal injection is now at the Supreme Court as I type. The trick is the damn fact that a given prisoner is likely to be nearly immune to the sodium thiopenthol and thus is likely to undergo the above case.
If we REALLY want to kill prisoners, may I suggest a new method. I call it the "inert gas method". This is a case where a prisoner is placed in a situation where he breathes in nitrogen instead of ordinary air so he gets no oxygen. He passes out then dies. Many fighter plane pilots can attest to the fact that extreme altitude will cause the desired effect of passing out painlessly - as they get training in an altitude chamber. Think of "Top Gun" with the altitude chamber scene. This was also discussed in the newsgroup "alt.suicide.methods" as about the most painless and humane mode of suicide. The inert gas method has the further advantage of not causing your ears to "pop" unlike the altitude chamber. Arranging the situation for the prisoner is an easy engineering problem. One need not be a fighter jock to know about high altitude. An old friend of mine told me about a good way to get a mother in law to shut up if you're driving a Cessna. You use your plane's oxygen bar and go up to "12 - 5" 12500 feet up and have her go to sleep. CAUTION: She could go to sleep for good! Mountain climbers also know about altitude like pilots and aviation enthusiasts do. The inert gas method is about the best method known to man so far.
The only way to improve on it would be vapourisation within a few nanoseconds. i.e. you place the criminal right next to a nuke as you set it off. Of course, that would be bad for the environment. Because we can't set off a couple hundred nukes a year, we are stuck with the inert gas method - or to not execute anyone unless they WANT to get it over with.
Now for something that'll sound like right out of the book _Freakonomics_. Punishment is finite but crime can be infinite. But punishment can get severe. One can see that time in prison is a nightmare come true by means of MSNBC and the series about prisons called "Lockup". Forensic science has gotten good enough that if you are going to commit a crime you will be most likely caught. This creates the "frealonomic" situation that one may as well commit suicide after a murder. That is, unless you want to run up a tab on the taxpayers!
As above, punishment is finite. Even if you kill 6 million people (like Hitler) you can get killed only _once_. Due to the exact situation in a prison, a hapless drunk driver going to prison for Reckless Homicide may well get AIDS or never exit the prison alive. For a drunk, it's not "worth it" to try to drive from that bar. But for a murderer it may well be "worth it" to commit suicide after the crime. After all, you avoid prosecution! This fact explains the school style suicide gunman and the suicide bomber. If you catch a murderer, you can only punish him by death once. If the probability of capture approaches a 1 then the killer may as well "get it over with".
As it turns out, crime and punishment has gotten like Booleanism. Either you commit the crime or you do not... and you die as the result or you do not - only by not doing the crime. Now for the fun part. If we are going to kill criminals as a punishment, we must find a humane method. So far, "lethal injection" is the execution method of choice. The lethal injection method goes like this:
A criminal is strapped to a gurney and an IV drip is started. The hose is hooked up to a machine. 3 drugs are inserted, first an anesthetic to knock out the prisoner, then a curare derivative is added to paralise him, then potassium chloride to cause a heart attack on purpose.
The problem comes up where the prisoner is a druggie and is all but immune to the sodium thiopenthol. With the second drug he is in "locked-in syndrome" aka anesthesia awareness, as the last drug is administered. All too many people underwent this "locked-in syndrome" during surgery as anesthesiologists have skimped on the knock-out dope. Some have actually commited suicide due to the X-Treme nightmarish situation of undergoing surgery while awake and being curare paralised. THIS situation of lethal injection is now at the Supreme Court as I type. The trick is the damn fact that a given prisoner is likely to be nearly immune to the sodium thiopenthol and thus is likely to undergo the above case.
If we REALLY want to kill prisoners, may I suggest a new method. I call it the "inert gas method". This is a case where a prisoner is placed in a situation where he breathes in nitrogen instead of ordinary air so he gets no oxygen. He passes out then dies. Many fighter plane pilots can attest to the fact that extreme altitude will cause the desired effect of passing out painlessly - as they get training in an altitude chamber. Think of "Top Gun" with the altitude chamber scene. This was also discussed in the newsgroup "alt.suicide.methods" as about the most painless and humane mode of suicide. The inert gas method has the further advantage of not causing your ears to "pop" unlike the altitude chamber. Arranging the situation for the prisoner is an easy engineering problem. One need not be a fighter jock to know about high altitude. An old friend of mine told me about a good way to get a mother in law to shut up if you're driving a Cessna. You use your plane's oxygen bar and go up to "12 - 5" 12500 feet up and have her go to sleep. CAUTION: She could go to sleep for good! Mountain climbers also know about altitude like pilots and aviation enthusiasts do. The inert gas method is about the best method known to man so far.
The only way to improve on it would be vapourisation within a few nanoseconds. i.e. you place the criminal right next to a nuke as you set it off. Of course, that would be bad for the environment. Because we can't set off a couple hundred nukes a year, we are stuck with the inert gas method - or to not execute anyone unless they WANT to get it over with.
posted by Michael Poulos at 8:18 AM
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