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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Road Not Considered: Revising New Jersey's Death Penalty Statute, Robert Blecker
The Road Not Considered: Revising New Jersey's Death Penalty Statute, Robert Blecker
Articles & Chapters
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Killing Them Softly: Meditations On A Painful Punishment Of Death, Robert I. Blecker
Killing Them Softly: Meditations On A Painful Punishment Of Death, Robert I. Blecker
Articles & Chapters
This brief essay argues that any attempt by the U.S. Supreme Court and others to establish a painless punishment, especially lethal injection, fails logically and morally.
From the beginning, by definition, etymologically and existentially, “punishment” and “pain” have been inseparably connected. Those who advocate ‘painless punishment’ call for contradiction. Whether looking to the future (utilitarians) or the past (retributivists), we once clearly understood and embraced the inseparable connection between punishment and pain. Gradually, however, punishment has morphed into something which denies its own nature, culminating in today's move toward a massive dose of anesthetic as the ultimate punishment - as …