Deathrow Deaths & Affirmative Action

Something is definitely wrong with our system when the leading cause of death on deathrow is not lethal injections or even natural causes, as appeal after appeal stretch on towards infinity. The leading cause of death is suicide!

As we debate with exquisite sensitivity whether murderers feel too much pain when injected with drugs designed to kill them, they apparently have become upset by the tension, the tedium and the fact that deathrow just isn’t as much fun as they may have imagined at the start of their felonious careers.

Clearly, if we worry about painful injections, we must treat their boredom and depression. If there is no other consequence to the Paris Hilton story (I sincerely apologize for writing that name. It really goes against my principles), it will be to treat the mental health and boredom issues of our leading murderers. How cruel it is to let them stew in their own juices and lose the will to live.

As a card carrying liberal, I know I’m supposed to be against the death penalty, and I was—until I became a parent. Then I realized that if you hurt my baby, I would happily drop the hammer on you, bust a cap, pull the trigger or just personally whack you.

Snow however, I find myself no longer philosophically opposed to the death penalty but practically opposed. We just do not apply the penalty with justice or equality. And while no system can be perfect, the imbalances of who is executed and who not for similar crimes is deeply troubling. Males, African-Americans, Hispanics and the poor get death in a hugely higher percentage than the rich, the white and the female.

I say, let’s have affirmative action on death row. Let’s execute a bunch of rich white women before another poor male of color is injected. Meanwhile, those who do not die of old age or boredom must be treated for their depression. Or is it too much to hope that they may actually feel tortured by feeling of guilt? Yeah, way too much to hope for.