Sunday, January 23, 2011

An Interesting Way To Fight The Death Penalty

The sole U.S. maker of the anesthetic used in executions announced Friday it would stop manufacturing sodium thiopental to prevent its product from being used to put prisoners to death.

I am unequivocally against the death penalty, particularly since is racially disparate in its application and I see it's unfortunate application in my criminal practice. It's no secret that even though blacks and whites are murder victims in nearly equal numbers of crimes, 80% of people executed since the death penalty was reinstated have been executed for murders involving white victims. It's also no secret that more than 20% of black defendants who have been executed were convicted by all-white juries.

Before we can even get to the moral argument, this point has never been addressed by proponents of the death penalty. Additionally, now that Hospiria, Inc. has said that it will not be a tool for state sanctioned murder anymore, maybe our educated nation will now go back to stoning, hanging and firing squad to morally teach us it's wrong to kill.