Inmate dies after botched execution; second execution stayed

[Psephos]

80. All sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Let me repeat this for you and the other nonreaders here v e r y s l o w l y:

I am unequivocally AGAINST the death penalty. No exceptions. Capisce?

Yet, I have also observed human nature AS IT ACTUALLY IS, every fucking day. I don't try to impose a political construct on it, I just take note.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of history knows that vengeance and retribution are essentially universal across cultures and time, and are wired into the human psyche from prehistoric tribal times, when they served a survival purpose among kin-related groups. They are the emotions behind Us vs. Them, which we play out every day here on DU against our mortal "Them" enemies, the demonic, subhuman, child-hating monsters: repugs.

Vengeance and retribution in their raw native state are the gasoline that ignites into fights, feuds, and wars. They have never once been legislated away. They've not shown susceptibility to religious prohibition nor political lectures. If we try to smash them down deep and lock them away, they will do what every other suppressed passion eventually does: work their way out in vastly more destructive ways. The real-world strategy that works, as any psychologist will tell you, is to SUBLIMATE the passion by channeling it out in a nondestructive way. Vent it so that it doesn't explode. Accept human nature, but not barbaric outcomes. Provide a way to acknowledge and respect vengeance passion, but also to prevent it from causing more misery.

So, yep, there actually IS an element of vengeance and/or retribution involved in gruesome murder cases, which you would know if anyone ever raped your 19 year old daughter, kidnapped her at gunpoint, dragged her to a dark field and shot her to death while she sobbed, and then tossed her body into a shallow grave. I don't need it or want these primitive emotions if I have no personal stake in an atrocity, but I'm not so stupid to deny I'd feel it in my bone marrow if I did. As would you, Saint Rick.