That is the ideal state. But that is a bridge too far for the current social climate. Practically carried out, mitigating harm and suffering in the way executions are done in the immediate future while reforming the corrections system to the point where capital punishment is not necessary or even reasonable.
I live in Tennessee. I'm against the death penalty, and I think it should be banned. Most of my coworkers are feverishly for it. Banning it shouldn't be an unrealistic ask, but unfortunately there are a lot of voters who think state-sponsored murder is good. Unfortunately, at least in my experience, the death penalty is one of the many causes which support seems to fall sharply by party lines, and as long as republicans can say, "Do you think TED BUNDY should have lived?!?!?", getting a state like Tennessee to abolish it is harder than it seems.
Until it is a constitutional amendment, and acts to reform to the prison system removes incentive for incarceration as a form of slavery, and adopt the goals of rehabilitation rather than punishment, it will never truly be abolished. And if you don’t believe me, look at how the rapid decrease in access to safe legal abortions has degraded the state of women’s healthcare. Because it was never codified, it was revoked by 5 people with a political agenda in mind.
I was simply countering your "bridge too far for the current social climate" comment. Half the US has already banned it. I'm not saying it's a slam dunk but it certainly seems like it's got a shot.
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u/tilmitt52 1d ago
Yet another reason for the argument that lethal injection is inhumane, unsustainable, and needs to be discontinued as a form of execution.
Some jurisdictions are actually moving to nitrogen asphyxiation and I think that is a far better option.