The Kenneth Eugene Smith Execution and My Dog

The White House found Eugene’s killing ‘very troubling’ and lawyers involved called it ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ but I guess that’s a requirement for getting rid of a guy on Death Row these days.

In fact, institutional death always has been cruel and unusual

Certainly, dropping the floor out from under you with a rope around your neck has a certain amount of last-minute terror. The smoke and dimmed lights of the electric-chair were part of the reason chemical executions now tend toward the flavor-of-the-day—simply too cruel and unusual for the required witnesses to bear, not to mention the victim.

Victim, you say? These people are murderers and worse.

Well sometimes they are and sometimes not. Since 1978, five California death row inmates out of the seventeen executed were later exonerated. Whether any of the other 12 were innocent may never be known. But a 29.4% ‘misunderstanding’ is way too high a percent when a single wrongful death is a crime in itself.

We know there are better methods

If you ever had to put down a pet, as I have my dog, they simply go to sleep and never wake. If you had an operation under general anesthetic, you’re asked to count backward from ten and by the time you murmur “seven” you wake, however many hours later. An anesthesiologist is paid to stand there and make sure you don’t either die or wake. Neither pet nor patient feels the slightest discomfort.

But that’s not good enough for Alabama, or any of the other 24 states that continue to practice the penalty.

Not nearly enough terror to suit the crime

Witnesses say during Smith’s execution with nitrogen gas, he was ‘shaking violently’ for 22 minutes. Nitrogen gas is an untested procedure that his lawyers had argued amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned under the Constitution. What could our society possibly dream up that is more cruel and unusual than nitrogen strangulation?

The execution had been scheduled to begin at 6pm local time at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, but it was delayed as the Supremes weighed his final appeal. Shortly before 8pm, the court denied that appeal, allowing the execution to proceed. One presumes they adjourned to go home to dinner. It’s too dark a thought to ponder whether they asked, “what’s for dessert?”

Nationally, support for the death penalty holds steady at about 53%

Alabama claimed that the new nitrogen gas method was “perhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised.” Shaking violently for 22 minutes doesn’t sound all that humane to me, but then I don’t do PR for the state of Alabama.

Witness Marty Roney of the Montgomery Advertiser reported that “Smith writhed and convulsed on the gurney. He took deep breaths, his body shaking violently with his eyes rolling in the back of his head.” The Rev Jeff Hood, Smith’s spiritual adviser, who was at Smith’s side for the execution, said prison officials in the room “were visibly surprised at how bad this thing went.” Visibly surprised? What on earth were they expecting?

John Hamm, Alabama Corrections Commissioner, was a bit more circumspect. He later told a press conference. “It appeared that Smith was holding his breath as long as he could.”

I guess he would. But at least the nitrogen caper had the proper dose of agony and fear to satisfy those seeking revenge. Revenge is a big item among the 53%, as it seems to be across what we choose to call ‘the undeveloped world.’

Or, as we choose to call it in America, Alabama.