We normally think of modern execution methods as humane because they appear physically painless. Certainly these methods appear painless, but appearances can be misleading. Electrocutions are probably painful, and may be excruciatingly so. We now know considerable electricity generated by the chair largely circumvents the skull, and instead passes through the body and out the leg. Thus, while massive surges of electricity are coursing through his body, the prisoner is almost certainly conscious; nerve activity- which carries the sensation of pain remains intact. We have convinced ourselves that prisoners don't experience pain in part because they do not move or speak, which of course is natural reactions to pa

All of this unfolds before us as we congratulate ourselves on our humaneness and more macabre style, as the immobilized offender comes to realize the deception of execution by lethal injection and, unable to struggle, recognizes his inability to communicate his distress to the world. He may endure a final insult to his dignity in the form of an experience of complete and utter helplessness while others smile benignly, as if all is well with a world that kills heinous murderers with such kindness. Is this what we have come to accept as o.k. in our society?

Is execution humane? Do we make right for they did wrong? Do we give justice to the deceased? All these questions are asked afterwards and the answer to these questions in my opinion is no. So what good is it to kill someone if nothing comes out of it? I'll leave that question to you.

Most executions today are carried out by lethal injection, clearly the tamest and most apparently painless method of execution yet devised. Here, too, however, controversy reigns. Some anesthesiologists question whether lethal injection is as painless as it appears, contending that it may, like hangings, produce a paralysis that masks a slow and painful death by suffocation. A small error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but paralyzed while dying, a sentient witness of his own slow, lingering asphyxiation. Such dosage errors would, therefore, produce botched executions. Other problems emerge as well, falling under the heading of botches or glitches. For example, it is often hard to locate veins in which to insert the needle on offenders with long histories of drug use, a category that includes many, if no

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Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)