Bizarre Twist on Death Penalty

Is it just me, or do other people find that democracy and its implicit support for humanity really goes against the whole notion of the death penalty?

I just find it amazing the twists and turns of the US judicial system when it wrestles with death sentences and the administration thereof. The latest twist is that two states, Florida and California, have stopped administering the death penalty because of a problem with the lethal injections leading to a convict being in agony for 34 minutes. Apparently the needle missed the vein and went into the surrounding tissue instead.

Let's face it. The death penalty is about revenge not justice... it's saying that this person has no chance for reform so we'll just bust him/ her out of the planet. You only have to look at the responses of the relatives of victims to see how much this is about vengeance.

So we have these strange things happen in the US:

* many people believe in the death penalty, but it has to be humanely administered. We have to shroud our desire for vengeance with an apparent concern for the welfare of the executionee.

* people apparently have to be medically fit in order to be put to death. That would never work in Australia, the land that perfected the "sickie". You can imagine the inmate ringing the governor and saying "Sorry *cough* I can't be executed today, I've got this terrible cold *cough* "

Reasons why I oppose the death penalty at all:

* the worst criminal cases become politicised and then justice is never really possible
* the judicial system makes mistakes-- remember Lindy Chamberlain!
* the death penalty falls hardest on the poor. The wealthy people more often are able to buy better lawyers and use influence to avoid the death penalty.
* many people who are executed in the U.S are actually either mentally ill or intellectually deficient... this doesn't seem to be a particularly just system.

Keith