The death penalty jumps the shark
The utter absurdity of the death penalty came into sharp focus today, when the state of Oklahoma executed a man terminally ill with cancer. Rather than let nature take its course within a few short months (or maybe even weeks), the state insisted on extracting its pound of flesh.
Jimmy Dale Bland had lung cancer which had metastasized throughout his body; he was not long for this world. The state insisted on executing him before the cancer could kill him.
The death penalty is not and never has been about justice; it is about vengeance and bloodlust. It is nothing more than state-sanctioned vigilantism. Justice has nothing to do with it. Cases such as this make a mockery of the Constitutional prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment," and they make our society look barbaric and, frankly, stupid.