Making executions better...

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments today about Kentucky's use of three-drug lethal injection. A good NY Times editorial manages to both address the issue at hand and make it clear that the larger point is that the death penalty, regardless of how it's administered, is always unconstitutional and immoral.

I often struggle with this myself--to even have a serious conversation about how much risk of pain or indignity or whatever is acceptable when KILLING SOMEONE IN A STATE-SANCTIONED SETTING strikes me as equivocal and disgusting. But I'm hopeful that cooler heads than mine on this particular issue will continue to achieve incremental reform on the way to eventually ending the barbaric practice altogether.