Bring the Guillotine Back to Death Row

[Jazzy]

If I were governor of a state that executed prisoners I'd declare a moratorium for my entire tenure. I wish that the United States would stop imposing the death penalty. I nevertheless find myself nodding along to Sonny Bunch's case for reintroducing the guillotine, a response to the botched execution of a death-row inmate in Oklahoma.

He argues that America has made its executions bloodless to protect the sensibilities of those who support the death penalty, with less humane killings as a result. (The electric chair. The gas chamber. Lethal injections. All have had horrific problems.)

Bunch writes:
The guillotine really seems to solve everyone’s problems: It was designed to deliver an efficient, quick, and painless death. It performs that task admirably. I understand the irony of a reactionary such as myself embracing the Terror’s preferred method of execution, but one must give credit where it’s due.

If we’re going to do something—and a large number of Americans and American states are pretty committed to performing executions—we ought to do it right. And “right” in this case means a quick and painless death. I can’t really imagine any reasonable objections to a widespread adoption of the guillotine.

Source

Should we bring the Guillotine Back to Death Row? Why / Why not?

 

[DrLeftover]

The guillotine (last seen in wide use during the French Revolution and then in Nazi Germany) is actually specified as a UN approved method of execution under the World Health Organization adopted in 2010.

And Our Dear Leader's signature health care legislation adopted the WHO's classification language without change. So he must approve.

Y35.5 Legal execution

Any execution performed at the behest of the judiciary or ruling authority [whether permanent or temporary], such as:

asphyxiation by gas
beheading, decapitation (by guillotine)
capital punishment
electrocution
hanging
poisoning
shooting

http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2010/en#/Y35-Y36

 

[Sinon]

I agree with it being used. I think a lot of those who do support the death penalty probably wouldn't if they were to witness it first-hand. With the injection, electric chair etc. it's relatively clean to watch when done right. But the guillotine is messy; there's going to be a lot of blood. It's going to look like a crime scene. And I think that a lot of people would change their minds if they were forced to watch something like that happen.

 

[Evil Eye]

If someone is sentenced to death, does it matter how it's done?

It matters a little, you have to find an executioner willing to do the job, after all.

 

[DrLeftover]

If someone is sentenced to death, does it matter how it's done?

It matters a little, you have to find an executioner willing to do the job, after all.

Ask the victim's friends and family for a volunteer to pull the lever.

 

[Evil Eye]

Ask the victim's friends and family for a volunteer to pull the lever.

I imagine that would cut down the number of executions.