I have seen three executions. I hope I never see a fourth.
Capital punishment is violence. But the state does all it can to conceal that fact. The viewing areas outside the death chamber are still and silent. Bright light floods the small room where people die. The warden pronouncing the sentence speaks in clipped, measured tones, saying no more than needed. You’re expected to view the act as a bloodless execution of justice.
Sometimes the human being on the gurney dies without showing visible distress. I say visible because in a lethal injection, the second drug in the mix stops the condemned person’s muscles before the third stops his heart. If the first drug has not rendered him unconscious — and midazolam, which Alabama uses, was not formulated to do that — you may be witnessing agony masked by paralysis…