Latest news with #Sigmon
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Who owned the gun a Kansas City man allegedly used in Saturday's shoot out with police?
MIAMI, Okla. – A Kansas City man involved in an officer-related shooting on Saturday had no criminal history and no ties to the Miami area, Miami Police Chief Stephen Sigmon confirmed on Tuesday. Sigmon said Cook's weapon was a 9mm Glock handgun that was legally registered to him. It is believed he has had the weapon for several years, he said. Michael Cook, 25, is accused of firing a weapon into the restaurant, Mia Bella Italian Kitchen, on Saturday after an apparent disagreement with a 7brew employee around 9 p.m. The motive behind the shooting is under investigation, and due to Cook's lack of a criminal history background, Sigmon said, 'We think it might be a possible mental health episode.' Cook has no known ties to the Miami area. Police located his vehicle at the Starbucks parking lot, which is about a mile and a half from Mia Bella Italian Kitchen. Cook was shot several times by Miami officers and sustained injuries to his left hand and the upper and lower left side of his torso. 'He's had a couple of surgeries, and another surgery is scheduled for Thursday,' Sigmon said. 'Currently, they (physicians) are evaluating his leg.' 'We are still trying to determine the objective,' Sigmon said of the shooting. 'We know he came into the city on Friday.' Sigmon said just before the shooting, Miami police received a telephone call of Cook beating on the window of a woman's car. 'We showed up just as the shooting began,' Sigmon said. Two police officers started pursuing Cook on foot as gunfire ensued, while the other two police officers tried to head off the Kansas City man in their police units, he said. Sigmon praised the officers, citing their bravery and professionalism. 'I want to commend the officers running toward the gunshot fired,' Sigmon said. Four Miami police officers are on paid administrative leave during the investigation into the shooting. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations is handling the case due to officer involvment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
Indiana hides executions. Firing squads would be more honest
Brad Sigmon had three options: die by firing squad, die by electrocution or die by a new lethal injection drug. He chose the firing squad. Mikal Mahdi made the same choice. South Carolina executed Sigmon on March 7 and Mahdi on April 11. Three shots to the heart of Sigmon. Two shots … well, two shots missed Mahdi's heart. A third shot missed him altogether. I'll return to that. He died, nevertheless. Benjamin Ritchie had no such choice. Indiana executed Ritchie starting at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, declaring him dead at 12:46 a.m. The state used the lethal injection drug pentobarbital, first used in the December killing of Joseph Corcoran, which ended Indiana's 15-year pause in executions. That's the same drug Sigmon and Mahdi passed on in South Carolina, opting instead to take bullets to the chest (or wherever the executioners could put them, given their skills). If you've been following Indiana's relaunch into state-sponsored killing, you can start to understand why a forced overdose of pentobarbital might not be a first choice for your last experience on earth. For as proud as Indiana is to be executing prisoners again, it doesn't seem so proud of its methodology, which has been kept as hidden as possible. Indiana killed Ritchie under a veil of secrecy, with no media present. We know pentobarbital is a barbiturate commonly used for animal euthanasia. It has become a lethal injection drug of choice for governments after years of shortages due to pharmaceutical companies opting out of supplying methods of execution. Executions involving pentobarbital have consistently lacked transparency, especially in Indiana. We don't know exactly how long the pentobarbital took to do its job Tuesday. We don't know if Ritchie suffered. More from Opinion: Death penalty for Beech Grove cop killer Benjamin Ritchie? Science says no. You might not care about that. Ritchie landed on death row because he shot Beech Grove police officer William Toney four times and killed him Sept. 29, 2000. He was found guilty of murder in 2002. As polarizing as the death penalty is, American society finds it most acceptable in cases involving the murder of police officers. Even liberal Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears has repeatedly advocated for the death penalty in such cases. Cards on the table, I oppose the death penalty in all cases. Indiana's approach is especially despicable. Our politicians want tough-guy credit for killing killers, while detaching themselves from the reality of their decisions. They shroud executions in darkness and sanitize the violence through the optics of medicine. Following Ritchie's execution, six inmates remain on death row in Indiana. All signs suggest the state intends to proceed. Indiana should go all in on the violence and permit firing squads — a more honest method of execution that also happens to be preferable to at least some inmates. If state Attorney General Todd Rokita is so enthusiastic about killing inmates, he can even pull one of the triggers and put it in a campaign ad. It's debatable whether firing squads could be considered more humane than veterinarian-inspired death. And, while much of the case against lethal injection is that it can be botched, there is no guarantee that firing squads are more efficient. Briggs: Jim Banks would let Trump commit any crime you can imagine In fact, Mahdi's execution in South Carolina was a botch by any standard. Under South Carolina's firing squad protocols, three executioners are supposed to fire one shot each to the heart of the inmate. In Mahdi's case, two shots damaged his liver and other organs and one missed altogether. "Mr. Mahdi did experience excruciating conscious pain and suffering for about 30 to 60 seconds after he was shot," Dr. Jonathan Arden, a pathologist commissioned by Mahdi's lawyers, Arden wrote in an analysis of South Carolina's autopsy, per NPR. As awful as that is, at least we know exactly what went wrong and how Mahdi died. Did anything go wrong in Ritchie's execution? We'd likely never know. Indiana did not allow independent witnesses — and, even if it had, those present did not have enough access or medical knowledge to understand whether the execution went off as planned. Indiana politicians want credit for killing bad guys. Inmates facing death want the quickest, most painless method of execution possible. Firing squads, as savage as they are, could better serve these cursed interests. Contact James Briggs at 317-444-4732 or Follow him on X and Bluesky at @JamesEBriggs. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Did Benjamin Ritchie's execution go wrong? We'd never know | Opinion
Indianapolis Star
21-05-2025
- Indianapolis Star
Indiana hides executions. Firing squads would be more honest
Brad Sigmon had three options: die by firing squad, die by electrocution or die by a new lethal injection drug. He chose the firing squad. Mikal Mahdi made the same choice. South Carolina executed Sigmon on March 7 and Mahdi on April 11. Three shots to the heart of Sigmon. Two shots … well, two shots missed Mahdi's heart. A third shot missed him altogether. I'll return to that. He died, nevertheless. Benjamin Ritchie had no such choice. Indiana executed Ritchie starting at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, declaring him dead at 12:46 a.m. The state used the lethal injection drug pentobarbital, first used in the December killing of Joseph Corcoran, which ended Indiana's 15-year pause in executions. That's the same drug Sigmon and Mahdi passed on in South Carolina, opting instead to take bullets to the chest (or wherever the executioners could put them, given their skills). If you've been following Indiana's relaunch into state-sponsored killing, you can start to understand why a forced overdose of pentobarbital might not be a first choice for your last experience on earth. For as proud as Indiana is to be executing prisoners again, it doesn't seem so proud of its methodology, which has been kept as hidden as possible. Indiana killed Ritchie under a veil of secrecy, with no media present. We know pentobarbital is a barbiturate commonly used for animal euthanasia. It has become a lethal injection drug of choice for governments after years of shortages due to pharmaceutical companies opting out of supplying methods of execution. Executions involving pentobarbital have consistently lacked transparency, especially in Indiana. We don't know exactly how long the pentobarbital took to do its job Tuesday. We don't know if Ritchie suffered. More from Opinion: Death penalty for Beech Grove cop killer Benjamin Ritchie? Science says no. You might not care about that. Ritchie landed on death row because he shot Beech Grove police officer William Toney four times and killed him Sept. 29, 2000. He was found guilty of murder in 2002. As polarizing as the death penalty is, American society finds it most acceptable in cases involving the murder of police officers. Even liberal Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears has repeatedly advocated for the death penalty in such cases. Cards on the table, I oppose the death penalty in all cases. Indiana's approach is especially despicable. Our politicians want tough-guy credit for killing killers, while detaching themselves from the reality of their decisions. They shroud executions in darkness and sanitize the violence through the optics of medicine. Following Ritchie's execution, six inmates remain on death row in Indiana. All signs suggest the state intends to proceed. Indiana should go all in on the violence and permit firing squads — a more honest method of execution that also happens to be preferable to at least some inmates. If state Attorney General Todd Rokita is so enthusiastic about killing inmates, he can even pull one of the triggers and put it in a campaign ad. It's debatable whether firing squads could be considered more humane than veterinarian-inspired death. And, while much of the case against lethal injection is that it can be botched, there is no guarantee that firing squads are more efficient. Briggs: Jim Banks would let Trump commit any crime you can imagine In fact, Mahdi's execution in South Carolina was a botch by any standard. Under South Carolina's firing squad protocols, three executioners are supposed to fire one shot each to the heart of the inmate. In Mahdi's case, two shots damaged his liver and other organs and one missed altogether. "Mr. Mahdi did experience excruciating conscious pain and suffering for about 30 to 60 seconds after he was shot," Dr. Jonathan Arden, a pathologist commissioned by Mahdi's lawyers, Arden wrote in an analysis of South Carolina's autopsy, per NPR. As awful as that is, at least we know exactly what went wrong and how Mahdi died. Did anything go wrong in Ritchie's execution? We'd likely never know. Indiana did not allow independent witnesses — and, even if it had, those present did not have enough access or medical knowledge to understand whether the execution went off as planned. Indiana politicians want credit for killing bad guys. Inmates facing death want the quickest, most painless method of execution possible. Firing squads, as savage as they are, could better serve these cursed interests.
Daily Mail
04-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Experts reveal the most painful way to be executed
Though inmates on Death Row all have the same destination, some methods are more painful and torturous than others. Last year, 25 people - all men - across nine states were put to death as punishment for heinous crimes like murder. There are several execution methods performed in the US, but the vast majority, about 1,000 since the 1970s, have been through lethal injection, a three-drug concoction that renders the body unconscious and induces a heart attack. However, amid a series of botched executions with lethal injection that have led to painful deaths and even failed executions that required the inmate to undergo another round, some more archaic methods have gradually made their way back into the 27 states that allow the death penalty. Before lethal injection became the most common execution method, most offenders were killed by electric chair, which sends 2,000 volts of electricity through the nervous system and 'fries' the brain. Earlier this year, Alabama executed murderer Brad Sigmon via firing squad, a 400-year old technique in which corrections officers shoot one bullet into an inmate's chest. It was America's first firing squad execution in 15 years. has revealed the most brutal ways to be executed, as told by experts and witnesses. Firing Squad Last month, Brad Sigmon of South Carolina was tied down to an armless chair. A white target with a red bullseye was pinned to his chest. Guards held his head in place with straps across his chin and forehead and put a black hood over his head. Sandbags surrounded the chair to soak up his blood. In an enclosure about 20 feet away, three officers raised their rifles and each shot a bullet into Sigmon's chest at the same time. He was declared dead three minutes later. Sigmon, 67, was the first American in 15 years to be put to death via firing squad, a centuries old execution method that only recently regained traction. Just weeks after Sigmon's execution, 42-year-old Mikal Mahdi of South Carolina met the same fate after choosing firing squad over lethal injection or the electric chair. He spent about 45 seconds groaning in pain and was declared dead four minutes after the shots rang out. Firing squad executions in the US date back to 1608, and about 142 people have been put to death this way since then. In a modern-day firing squad execution, three officers stand about 15 feet away and fire through a small opening in the wall. The inmate's head is covered and they are restrained by their arms and legs. Despite the brutality of the method, some experts have suggested a firing squad execution may be one of the fastest ways to die. Dr James Williams, an emergency room physician in Texas and courtroom expert on firing squad executions, told The Marshall Project: 'There is a lot of evidence that the near-instant loss of blood pressure means no blood gets to the brainstem, and there is a rapid loss of consciousness. He compared it to a chokehold, which causes loss of consciousness in three to five seconds. However, a South Carolina court in 2022 said firing squad death could be considered 'torture' because it damages an inmate's heart and its surrounding bone and tissue. Experts testifying in the case said this would be extremely painful until the inmate falls unconscious. Firing squads are legal in Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah. Inmates can choose the methods in Utah and South Carolina, and in Mississippi it may be used if lethal injections are unavailable. A March 2025 bill made firing squad the main execution method in Idaho. Nitrogen gas Nitrogen gas execution, also called 'nitrogen hypoxia,' uses nitrogen gas to suffocate a person. Inmates are strapped to a gurney, unable to move any of their limbs, and are fitted with a mask and forced too breathe in pure nitrogen. Though nitrogen is naturally occurring and composes more than three-quarters of the air we breath, inhaling it at high concentrations leads to suffocation. While authorities in the four states where nitrogen hypoxia is legal - Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Louisiana - predict nitrogen hypoxia knocks an inmate unconscious and causes multi-organ failure in five to 15 minutes, critics say it causes excessive pain and humiliation. This could mean being left in a vegetative state or choking on one's own vomit. The World Society for the Protection of Animals said in its 2013 guidelines: 'Current evidence indicates this method is unacceptable because animals may experience distressing side effects before loss of consciousness.' The American Veterinary Medical Association made a similar conclusion in its 2020 guidance. And officials from the United Nations said it could breach human rights treaties that forbid 'torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.' Some critics say that the use of a one-size-fits-all mask means that it's not airtight. An inadequate seal could lead to oxygen leaking through the mask, which could lead to a prolonged and painful death. According to the theory, this could also lead to a stroke, seizure or the inmate being put into a vegetative state instead of dying. Even brain cells that are starved of oxygen for a few minutes may never recover, leaving the sufferer brain dead but still technically alive. Last year, Kenneth Smith of Alabama became the first American executed with nitrogen gas. It took 22 minutes for the 58-year-old to be pronounced dead, during which he thrashed against the gurney, convulsed and vomited into his mask. Since then, four more men have chosen nitrogen gas for their execution. Jessie Hoffman Jr of Louisiana became America's fifth inmate executed with nitrogen gas in March. It took 19 minutes for him to stop breathing. Witnesses reported he twitched and jerked his head with fists clenched. Prisoners can select this method of execution. In Mr Smith's case, he chose it after surviving a botched lethal injection. Lethal injection Lethal injection is the most common execution method in the US, with 1,377 injections administered since the 1970s. The method was first developed in 1977, though it would be five years before it would be used for the first time in Texas inmate Charles Brooks. Today, all 27 states that have the death penalty allow lethal injection. Lethal injection involves restraining the inmate to a gurney and placing heart monitors on their skin. Two needles, one of which is a backup, are inserted into the prisoner's veins, usually their arms. The inmate is given a trio of chemicals: the anesthetic midazolam to render them unconscious, the paralytic bromide to stop them from moving and potassium chloride to stop their heart. Dr Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and professor at Emory University in Atlanta, told CNN the 500 milligram dose of anesthetic likely triggers pulmonary edema, a condition in which fluid builds up in the lungs. If the inmate is not fully unconscious, pulmonary edema could make them feel as if they are drowning. However, Dr Ervin Ten, a retired anesthesiologist who has witnessed several executions, said if pulmonary edema starts after a patient becomes unconscious, it is likely 'not causing them discomfort.' Experts have also raised concerns that the paralytic would render an inmate unable to communicate distress if they have not properly been knocked unconscious. Dr Mark Health, an anesthesiology professor at Columbia University, testified in a lawsuit challenging Kentucky's execution protocol that some inmates have cried tears during the process. He said this could indicate severe pain or suffocation. Potassium chloride has also been shown to cause severe pain, which some experts comparing it to feeling like the arm is on fire. The whole process is meant to take about five minutes, but botched case can take up to two hours. The most recent lethal injection procedure was performed May 1, 2025, in Florida for Jeffrey Hutchinson, who was convicted of murdering 32-year-old single mother Renee Flaherty and her three children in 1998. The procedure took 15 minutes. According to the Associated Press, Hutchinson's legs shook and his body spasmed for several minutes before he went still and was declared dead. Glen Rogers, nicknamed the 'Casanova Killer,' will also be given a lethal injection in Florida two weeks later for the murder of five people in the 1990s. An additional eight lethal injections have been planned so far for 2025. Hanging Up until the 1890s, hanging was the most common method of execution in the US, particularly famous in the Wild West. But in 2025, it is only a legal execution method in Washington state, and this is only if lethal injection is either unavailable or ruled unconstitutional. The last hanging execution was carried out in 1996 in Delaware for Billy Bailey, who was convicted of murdering elderly couple Gilbert and Clara Lambertson. Hanging was the official method of execution in Delaware until 1986, and the gallows were disassembled entirely in 2003. The method typically involves an inmate being weighed the day before and authorities having to perform a rehearsal with a sandbag the same weight as the inmate. This is meant to determine how long the drop from the top of the gallows needs to be for a quick death. During the execution, the inmate's hands and feet are secured and they are blindfolded. Once the noose is placed around their neck, a trap door beneath them opens and the inmate falls through, breaking their neck. While hanging is meant to provide an instant death, small errors can make it torturous. If the rope is too short, for example, an inmate could be strangled instead of having their neck immediately broken. This could leave them gasping for air for up to 15 minutes. In fact, throughout the 1800s, inmates were known to hang by their broken necks for up to 30 minutes before finally succumbing to asphyxiation. Harold Hillman, an expert in executions at the University of Surrey, told NBC News: 'Hanging is a very cruel way of killing people. 'The fracture obstructs their breathing, and they are left gasping for breath.' If inmates fall too far, they may pick up so much speed that the noose decapitates them. This would be an instant death. Electric chair Around the time hanging became less common in the US, the electric chair came to take its place. In 1881, a dentist named Dr Albert Southwick suggested using electrocution to execute inmates after he watched an elderly drunk man 'painlessly' die from touching an electric generator. New York's Electrical Execution Law was passed eight years later and Edward David, an electrician at Auburn Prison, was commissioned to build the world's first electric chair. On August 6, 1890, 30-year-old William Kemmler of New York became the first American killed via electric chair. A year earlier he had been convicted of murdering his wife Matilda 'Tillie' Ziegler. However, the process was far from painless. The machine delivered 700 volts of electricity for only 17 seconds before the current failed. Even though witnesses reported smelling burned clothing and charred flesh, Kemmler was far from dead. Anything over 50 volts is considered potentially deadly. He underwent a second charge of 1,030 volts for two minutes. As he was confirmed dead, smoke wafted out of his head. Since 1890, 4,374 electric chair executions have been performed in the US, the only country to have ever used the method. The electric chair is no longer used as the sole execution method in any state, and the last one was in Tennessee in 2020. The method is legal in nine states, and in many cases, the inmate can ask for it in place of lethal injection. The method involves shaving and strapping a person to a chair with belts across their chest, groin, legs and arms. A metal skullcap-shaped electrode is attached to the scalp and forehead over a sponge moistened with saline. The inmate is then blindfolded and the executioner pulls a handle to deliver between 500 and 2,000 volts of electricity for around 30 seconds. The exact amount depends on weight and how much the inmate is able to survive. US Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who opposed the death penalty, described electric chair executions in gruesome detail in 1986. He said: 'The prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. 'The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. 'Sometimes the prisoner catches fire... Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber.' This happens because the intense electric current causes all muscles in the body to lose control, including those in the bladder and bowels. The body also thrashes so hard that multiple bones break. The current also fries all nerves in the body, including those in the brain.
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The return of the firing squad is a defeat for death penalty supporters
On 11 April, South Carolina executed Mikal Mahdi by firing squad. Mahdi had been convicted and sentenced for the 2004 killing of an off-duty law enforcement officer. One month before his execution, South Carolina put Brad Sigmon to death using the same method. He was the first person since 2010 to be killed by the firing squad. Both Mahdi and Sigmon chose the firing squad from a menu of three ways to die, the others being lethal injection and the electric chair. Five days after Sigmon's execution, Idaho became the first state in the country to make the firing squad its primary method for putting people to death. It is one of five states, along with Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah, where it is an authorized execution method. These developments suggest that death by firing squad is gradually returning to the capital punishment landscape in this country. But as Sigmon's lawyer, after witnessing his execution, remarked: 'It is unfathomable that, in 2025, South Carolina [or any other state] would execute one of its citizens in this bloody spectacle.' But whether unfathomable or not, the return of the firing squad is, at best, a mixed blessing for death penalty supporters. On the one hand, it allows death penalty states that have had difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs to get back into the execution business. South Carolina is one example of this development. At the same time, the resurrection of the firing squad serves as a vivid and troubling reminder of the brutality of state killing. As such, it undermines the legitimating story of capital punishment in the United States. As proponents of the death penalty tell it, that story is one of adaptation and progress. Our methods of execution, they believe, have become more civilized. The United States has moved from one method of execution to another in a quest to find a means of putting people to death that would square with the constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Over the past century and a quarter, rather than being uneasy about the novelty of an execution method, pro-death-penalty forces have tried to sell it as an advantage. They have tied capital punishment's fate to technological progress in our capacity to kill. The focus on technology as a way of sidelining the moral question of whether we should use the death penalty at all is a characteristically American view, dating at least to the 19th century. That is why, unlike other death penalty countries, which tend to stick with one execution method over long periods of time, we have substituted one method for another or added new methods so that now, six execution methods are legal and authorized in this country. In advocating for various methods, death penalty supporters have focused on two supposed virtues: novelty, and the reduction of pain. A recent example is the embrace of nitrogen hypoxia in Alabama and Louisiana, which might appear to fit that narrative. First, it is novel. The country's first use of nitrogen hypoxia occurred in January 2024, when Alabama executed Kenneth Eugene Smith. Second, as Scientific American notes: 'At the hearings [in Alabama] where the method was introduced, legislators heard stories of pilots and scuba divers dying when they accidentally breathed pure nitrogen instead of the proper mix of nitrogen and oxygen.' Their deaths were quick, proponents of nitrogen hypoxia claimed. An Oklahoma legislator who introduced the bill authorizing nitrogen hypoxia in his state argued: 'The process is fast and painless. It's foolproof.' The promise that execution will be fast and painless is also one reason for the firing squad's revival. One example of that promise is provided by the law professor Deborah Denno, who says: 'The firing squad is the only current form of execution involving trained professionals, and it delivers a swift and certain death'. She cites 'a 1938 Utah study – the only one of its kind', which 'monitored an inmate while he was being executed by a firing squad and it showed the death occurred in under a minute'. That is why 'it really should be brought back … if we're going to continue to have the death penalty.' CNN quotes another expert, Dr Jonathan Groner, a professor of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine, who claims that the firing squad 'is thought to cause nearly instant unconsciousness … firing bullets into a person's heart would instantly stop the blood flow to the brain, which, like a cardiac arrest, causes rapid loss of brain function'. Or, as the Idaho state representative Bruce Skaug, one of the sponsors of the recently enacted firing squad bill, explained: 'At first when you hear firing squad, if you're not familiar with the history, you think 'well, that sounds barbaric,' is what I've heard from some … It is certain. It is quick. Whether or not that is the case, this part of the story about the firing squad fits in well with the progress story about methods of execution. But it does not fit well with the story's commitment to novelty in execution methods. Indeed, its use in this country dates back to 1608, when Capt George Kendall in Virginia was executed for being a spy for Spain. And, as the New York Times reports, during the Civil War, 'both Union and Confederate troops used firing squads to kill deserting soldiers. The executions were intended to inspire fear, as they were typically carried out in public.' Of all execution methods, the firing squad has been used the least. About 140 people have been executed that way in the US. That is about a tenth of the total number of lethal injection executions. The firing squad has been used so rarely because it is so violent. It mimics the very thing that it is meant to discourage. When states like Idaho or South Carolina bring back this relic of a bygone era, they signal the weakness, not strength, of the pro-death penalty forces at this moment in the history of capital punishment. Desperate to kill, they would take us 'back to the future' in the world of execution methods. 'The firing squad,' as Professor Corrina Lain observes, 'shows what the death penalty is, which is the state shedding blood in your name.' The execution of Mikal Mahdi was a vivid reminder of that fact. His death is just the latest moment for all of us 'to know,' as supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor puts it, 'the price of our collective comfort … before we blindly allow a state to make condemned inmates pay it in our names.' Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, is the author or editor of more than 100 hundred books, including Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty
