This past Sunday, the New York Times responded to the horrific execution of Ken Biros by the State of Ohio last week. Yes, where Biros was killed in the same way that your vet euthanizes dogs and cats. Yes, where Ohio ran ahead and used a new method of execution that hasn’t been vetted, allowing Biros to be a human guinea pig. In a succinct, well-written opinion piece, the New York Times shares in the horror of what Ohio has done. From its offices in Manhattan, the Times states it plainly: “There is no Humane Execution.” Of course, the editorial has its critics. At Sentencing Law & Policy, for example, the New York Times piece is challenged — most interestingly, for its suggestion that the Texas case of Cameron Todd Williamham is a fluke:
“Finally, as serious students of the death penalty know, the Willingham case is the closest we’ve gotten to a clear showing an innocent person may have been executed; to suggest that a large number of innocent people have quite likely been put to death is especially misguided.”
Really? Currently on Death Row, a number of men set waiting to be executed, and the Innocence Project is monitoring this list. Surely we’re not to wait until they are killed before we have enough justification to stop capital punishment in this country. From our post dated 09/11/09, here are the names of the innocent setting on Death Row per the Innocence Project as of that day – visit our earlier post for links to each man’s individual story, as told by the IP: Kirk Bloodsworth Rolando Cruz Alejandro Hernandez Verneal Jimerson Dennis Williams Robert Miller Ron Williamson Ronald Jones Earl Washington Frank Lee Smith Charles Irvin Fain Ray Krone Nicholas Yarris Ryan Matthews Curtis McCarty Kennedy Brewer Michael Blair