#1208 Final Cocktails

Not long ago, as I was walking past a newspaper box, I glanced at a headline about the state changing it’s execution policy. Seems they are now offering prisoners executed by lethal injection only one chemical rather than a cocktail.
So is this a cost-cutting measure? I know the legislature is having to make hard choices, with the economy still in the crater. Since virtually our entire budget is based on sales tax, and since the economy tanked and there is no sales tax, they’re having to make some tough decisions.
Maybe they’re trying to prevent the embarrassment of what happened at an Oklahoma prison, when the local hospital decided to cut off the prison’s supply of lethal injection chemicals because an anti-death penalty group threatened a boycott.
So, is limiting the amount of chemicals we’re using to execute vicious threats to society a good idea? I mean, we don’t want them waking up later from an underdose on their way to the undertaker and going all horror movie on us.
But, my first thought when I saw the headline was, they inject prisoners with cocktails? I thought it was some dangerous household chemical they got from a hazo-house collection.
But a cocktail? And do they give the death row prisoner a final meal-like choice? “Yeah, I’ll have a Manhattan. I always liked the idea of going out in New York style.”
Or maybe the guy gets a salted lime squeezed through his hood and you inject him with tequila shooters. Arriba, that’s shooting up in style. Would you like reposado or anejo?
But hey, if they’re going to be injecting chemicals, and the prisoner has a choice, why wouldn’t he just choose a massive heroin overdose?
Which the state could save lots of money with by picking some up on the street. Maybe they already have a few kilos stashed at their drug-enforcement evidence warehouses.
Why not? The chemicals they use now are so boring and industrial. Sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and sodium chloride? They sound like the preservatives on a cereal box.
I’m guessing most death row inmates heading down that last road would choose to ride the horse.
America, ya gotta love it.