So far, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has not responded to repeated calls from Pike's attorneys and death penalty observers to commute her sentence from the death penalty to life in prison.
I oppose the death penalty, but if we’re going to have it, it should be by guillotine. I argue this for five reasons.
Proponents of capital punishment claim that the existence of the death penalty is to terrify people into not committing capital crimes. A guillotine is a far more terrifying implement of death than a gurney, and for maximum effect it can even be displayed in a museum when it isn’t being used and made available to traumatise schoolchildren with by taking them on highly inappropriate school trips.
Procurement of lethal injection drugs is difficult and expensive. Any skilled woodworker can make a working guillotine in a weekend for a thousand dollars.
It is easy to operate and even idiot prison officials in Tennessee can operate it without causing unnecessary suffering for the condemned. It’s harder to screw up. Relatively little training is required to operate it correctly and it is fast and easy to set up.
It doesn’t hide the fact that killing someone is taking blood and an inherently an act of extreme violence, regardless of whether you have the authority of the state behind you.
Nobody can deny that death comes extremely quickly to the condemned after using it.
To me, reason number 4 is the most important reason I see in modern America. I think if we are a society that believes in execution, we should acknowledge that violence is violent. We should be forced to watch it happen.
For what it’s worth, I also oppose the death penalty. I also believe that a life sentence without parole is also a death penalty. What life are we offering to life sentencees without parole? A lifetime tax burden on their state in exchange for what? Our goal should be reformation instead of exploitation.
I oppose the death penalty, but if we’re going to have it, it should be by guillotine. I argue this for five reasons.
To me, reason number 4 is the most important reason I see in modern America. I think if we are a society that believes in execution, we should acknowledge that violence is violent. We should be forced to watch it happen.
For what it’s worth, I also oppose the death penalty. I also believe that a life sentence without parole is also a death penalty. What life are we offering to life sentencees without parole? A lifetime tax burden on their state in exchange for what? Our goal should be reformation instead of exploitation.