I’m uncomfortable with the death penalty. It causes two major problems:

1) We absolutely cannot, ever again, execute an innocent person.
2) If we doubt the guilt of a convicted person, are we suggesting there is something wrong with our judicial system?

A three-strikes and you’re dead policy is sometimes advocated (though not in such colourful language) and I have some sympathy with it except….
Except that it doesn’t account for cases of gross, burning-in-hell’s-too-good-for-them acts of inhumanity like this. If we had an elected head of state we could defer judgements like this to him or her, but as we do not I think the safest option is to keep the option open until there is (or elected judges…).


Lethal injection