Bullet point
The meaning of “cruel and unusual” punishment has been defined down over the years by death penalty opponents. A result is the long slog from beheading by axe or sword to the guillotine to the firing squad and hanging to the gas chamber and electric chair to, finally, lethal injection.
Pressure on companies that make the drugs used in executions has led to a shortage and this may result in a reversal of sorts. If Oklahoma can’t get the drugs, it could legally resort to the electric chair or firing squad. Since the state has no electric chair (and isn’t likely to put out bids for one), that leaves the bullet. Perhaps this is the true intent of the anti-capital punishment forces — to take executions back in time to what the people might consider an unacceptable alternative.
If so, we pity the first death row inmates who face a firing squad while public opinion catches up with the fallback method to put cold-blooded killers to death. Will those inmates beg for the needle instead, only to be told their friends on the outside have loaded the rifle by unloading the syringe?
The execution chamber at the Utah State Prison after an execution by firing squad in June 2010. (AP Photo)
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