This article is based on my 2013 article on state-beheading. Read the background here. Beheading is intolerably cruel. Beheading is less cruel than lethal injection. Therefore, lethal injection is intolerably cruel. If a mode of capital punishment is intolerably cruel then it ought to be illegal. Therefore, lethal injection ought to be illegal.
capital punishment
Is it time to reestablish state-based beheading?
A few days ago John Kruzel published a really fine article at Slate calling for the return of the guillotine. Kruzel points out the many problems with lethal injection as a form of capital punishment, and he points out that by contrast, the guillotine is (believe it or not) more humane and less messy. He […]
Jesus, execution and divorce
In “Does Jesus commend the killing of children in Mark 7:10?” I argued that this verse (and the surrounding passage, Mark 7:9-13) does not provide warrant to think Jesus would commend (let alone participate in) the stoning of a child, even if the conditions for such a stoning as outlined in the Torah were met. […]
Why it is wrong to execute minors
In the this and a following post I’m going to provide answers to some of the questions/comments in “Would Jesus stone a misbehaving child?” I will start here with a response to MaxVel. Let’s begin by quoting MaxVel’s comments in full: I think your attempted parallel here doesn’t work well because the original is in […]
Filicide in “biblical” perspective. But which biblical perspective?
Now I’m slowly getting caught up on some of last week’s comments. In this article I address a comment in response to my essay “Should lazy teenagers be stoned?” I will then address the comments in “Would Jesus stone a misbehaving child?” Finally, I will address comments on morality and naturalism in “Can objective moral […]
The unconscionable act of executing Troy Davis
The Supreme Court rejected the final appeal for clemency on behalf of Troy Davis. This despite the surprisingly weak eye witness testimony (much of which has since been retracted) which initially convicted him. This past year the United States criminal justice system executed 46 people, almost twice the number that was executed in Saudi Arabia. […]
