Ohio Executions: Straight, No Chaser

High-profile failures to humanely administer the lethal, three-drug cocktail used by 35 other states have prompted Ohio to abandon that method in favor of single-drug lethal injections.

The announcement by the director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction endorsed the injection of a "massive dose of anesthetic," reports The New York Times. This method -- preferred for veterinary euthanasia -- has long been pushed by critics of the more popular three-drug cocktail which paralyzes inmates and is intended to also render them unconscious. Paralysis is especially problematic, critics say, as it eliminates inmates' potential to express extreme discomfort with failed or particularly painful executions.

Despite some celebrations of the move, it only represents an effort to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic that is Ohio's death row. Ohio's recent displays of executioners' incompetence were not merely demonstrative of the need for a new approach to executions. Ohio's botched attempt to execute Rommel Broom are illustrative of capital punishment's shortcomings generally.

In the most charitable light, capital punishment remains an anachronistic punitive policy that puts our developed democracy on lists with China, Iran and other dictatorships few would uphold as models of enlightened governance. More frankly, our country's penchant for reciprocating extraordinary violence might be described as a barbarian abomination that should shame any proud patriot.

Were that not argument enough for abolition, executing prisoners has proven to cost considerably more for states struggling to balance budgets. Incarcerating the worst, most irredeemable criminals for life without any chance of parole would save taxpayers $90,000 per case. So, Ohio's efforts to preserve capital punishment prove Buckeye pols' penchant for persisting in a fiscally irresponsible approach. Short-term costs will also result, as the change in methods itself faces certain challenges at no small cost to taxpayers.

Like a chronic alcoholic who traders in Miller Genuine Draft for Miller Lite, Ohio's new approach to executing criminals fails to even acknowledge the costly and tragic elephant in the room.

Photo via Zaldylmg