Death Penalty: Leftist Thinking--The End Justifies the Means

I occasionally import comments to make my points, usually from AOL; this one comes from the board under the story on the Georgia execution (see previous entry), and is presented, as usual, with my response:

"Was he shuddering and yawning ... or writhing and screaming in pain silently since they paralysed his motors and vocal chords ? Recall the execution scene in Soldier of Orange when the Nazis guillotined the Dutch patriot. Even though this fellow was a prime candidate for omclusion in the class of "those needing to die," if we are going to chemically crucify them, then at least we should admit that we want to torture them to death for their transgressions, and be properly done with it."

I have nothing but contempt for people who say things like the above.

First, it is dishonest. Is this person's problem (or that of the death penalty opponents who took this ridiculous "issue" to the Supreme Court) that lethal injection is torture (as distinguished from hanging, electrocution, the guillotine, or the firing squad). Of course not. This person merely opposes the death penalty, no matter how imposed, but is willing to say anything, and subvert deomocracy, in pursuit of that goal--the