The state of Ohio was unsuccessful last night in its attempts to execute a convicted murderer. The execution was to be by lethal injection, but technicians could not find a suitable vein in the inmate’s arms or legs. The governor ordered a one-week postponement.
Politics today throws up all kinds of so-called “moral values” issues — capital punishment, abortion, “gay marriage,” to name but a few. I have always understood that my primary responsibility lies with the core economic questions. The problem, of course, is that the “moral values” issues act as “wedge issues” to drive away a constituency of low-to-moderate-income voters who supposedly would benefit from progressive policies on the economic question.
People need to understand that there is a difficulty here that is similar to the one over interrogation practices with regard to detained suspected terrorists that may cross over the line and involve torture. No matter how much visceral support there might be for such policies, it becomes difficult to carry them out in a context in which they are bound by the law. In an authoritarian regime in which such things are a matter of decree, it becomes much simpler. Otherwise, such measures are susceptible to being appealed to the court system to ensure that they are carried out lawfully. In the United States, for instance, we are constrained under the Eighth Amendment to make sure that executions do not amount to executions-plus-torture. This appears to have been the issue in last night’s Ohio case.
Capital punishment elicits a vein of visceral support in the United States, but it arouses suspicion that the southern states are most enthusiastic about the practice, and that death-row inmates are disproportionately African-American. A representative of the Death Penalty Information Center remarked about last night’s episode: “The question of whether this is still an acceptable punishment in our society … is compounded by this mistake.” The practice is under pressure around the world, and it is to be expected that this pressure will continue.