Ted Rall for August 01, 2014

Rambling nonsense once again Ted.

This guy’s executon had already lasted 25 years – what’s another couple hours?

“Yelled and choked.” Not one witness described it that way. I heard/read “gasped and snorted” and “sounded like he was snoring”. This guy’s obviously a liar.

Of course the reason why the condemned man was “gasping” (though it appears that the better term for his sounds was “snoring”) is that the state of Arizona had been denied access to more effective anesthesia for the execution as a result of anti-death penalty activism. If anything, therefore, it is those who oppose the death penalty who are willing to make it worse for those on death row for the benefit of public perception.-Ultimately to be justified the death penalty must serve an important purpose. I think that if it has deterred even one murder then it has easily done so, but there are collateral benefits, such as was demonstrated by the case of the Green River Killer. As part of a deal to avoid the death penalty he revealed the locations of some of his undiscovered murder victims. Without the death penalty their relatives would be denied that small level of closure. The case also demonstrates that many criminals fear the death penalty and will try to avoid it, even if the alternative is life imprisonment.

Not sure where you get your “facts” supporting murderers Teddy, but it looks like only 35% of Americans oppose the death penalty. 60% support it. That’s a landslide.http://www.gallup.com/poll/165626/death-penalty-support-lowest-years.aspx

“I oppose the death penalty in all cases except treason…”Because crimes against actual people aren’t as bad as crimes against the philosophical construct that many here seem to despise? I’ll go out on a limb & suggest that the government’s existence is more robust than most of it’s citizens & needs less protection, not more.