Opinion

Efficient murder at reasonable price

Posted January 26, 2014 3:40 am

The folks with bloodlust in their hearts supporting state sponsored murder known legally as the “death penalty” had a tough last week. They injected two new lethal drugs into their Ohio murder victim, Dennis McGuire, which were substituted for pentobarbital, no longer available because the manufacturer forbids its use in state sponsored murder.

Alas, the new drugs didn’t work so well. McGuire was initially quiet but then started gasping and uttering load snorting noises before his 25 minutes of torture ending with his heartbeat. Normally, the murder victim makes a couple of gasps after being injected before quietly expiring. McGuire’s daughter also gasped as she watched her father’s barbaric demise. Let’s hope she cleans out Ohio’s execution fund with a huge legal settlement.

In a related story, Wyoming state senator Bruce Burns introduced legislation to use the firing squad for Wyoming bad guys because of these twin problems with lethal injection. When asked why not go with the more reliable gas chamber, Burns replied it would be too expensive for Wyoming to build and install one. Burns’ bill is a two-for: efficient state sponsored murder at a reasonable price.

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn

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