The United States Supreme Court recently gave Texas and other states the go ahead to continue its’ “death machine” with its holding that the current method of lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment… What remains to be seen is whether Texas will be the anomaly in its willingness to inject more lethal drugs as nationally executions overall dropped in 2007. Some states are banning executions all together coming to their own determination that lethal injection has its issues.

Is this a social conscience moment towards abolition of the death penalty or just as short lived “point in history” reprieve for those awaiting execution until we find a more uniformly “humane” way of killing…..? Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens stated that while he agreed with the majority that the current version of lethal injection was constitutional, he felt the death penalty in itself was unconstitutional. Is it just a matter of time before the right case comes up before the court to strike down the use of the death penalty forever?

My home state of Texas certainly has no problem executing the guilty and probably even some of the innocent when you look at the fact that it has the highest rate of convictions overturned by DNA evidence in the nation.

People try to complicate the death penalty debate into so many different “pigeon holes’ that the arguments become uncontrollably blurred. You can do it under these circumstances; you can’t do it under those….. Is it not simpler than that? Either you believe the state as the right to take a life in exchange for a life or you don’t. Either you believe the state is entitled to exact “revenge” for the victim or you don’t…. It certainly is not about deterrence. The states are clear that the death penalty does not deter crime.

It is actually more complicated than that. I for example have no problem with the concept of state sponsored revenge. I am not ashamed to say that the fact that there might be a little pain involved in the process does not bother me either….

I however have a real problem with the fact that one innocent person could be executed. The system has proven time and time again to be very fallible.

Let’s say for instance that a child molester has been convicted of raping and killing a little girl. He is sentenced to death. You win the “kill him now” national lottery and are chosen to “pull the switch”. Just when you are about to pull the switch you are told that there is a 1 and 10 chance the person is innocent. In other words there is a 90 percent chance he is guilty. What if you are told there is a 1 in 100 chance he is innocent? You see my dilemma….. At what point is it ok to say he might be innocent but let’s kill him anyways….

What is the acceptable margin of error for a human life? In my opinion anyone who believes that an innocent person has never been executed in this country is very naïve or simply delusional. We say sorry and “that really sucks” and move on to the next bad guy…..

Just something to think about…..