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Don't wait for court to say it's cruel

According to credible scientific evidence, Florida's method of lethal injection may inflict severe, gratuitous pain. If that is proven in court, the three-drug cocktail that the state uses to execute prisoners will be set aside.

But why wait for a court's decision? There is sufficient evidence of a problem to prompt the state to redesign its protocol for lethal injection. The manner in which the state executes humans has been prohibited for use on pets because the drugs used may inadvertently hide the excruciating suffering of the animal as it dies. That should be basis enough for the state to come up with a better method.

This question is not just academic. The U.S. Supreme Court this week gave Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill the green light to challenge the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection regimen. While we do not support the death penalty no matter how it is carried out, Hill did murder a police officer in Pensacola in 1982 during a bank robbery. He will be facing the executioner. The only outstanding issue in his case, which is now before a lower federal court, is whether Florida's method is unconstitutionally cruel. Florida should not wait for a court to rule that it is.

[Last modified June 16, 2006, 05:30:59]