CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: Time to ‘quit murdering people’

I read with interest Wednesday’s article about the upcoming execution in Alabama using nitrogen gas. I especially noted the quotation by Dr. Jeffrey Keller of the American College of Correctional Physicians, where he stated that the procedure would be like “putting a bag over one’s head.”

Fine, Dr. Keller. Put a bag over your own head and see what it feels like. Replacing oxygen with carbon dioxide I think would be considerably different than replacing it with nitrogen. Where did he get his degree? The Josef Mingele School of Medicine? Oh I forgot: Alabama is the state where they perform medical experiments on people as a matter of course. It is past time for our nation to quit murdering people under the barbaric Old Testament notions of “justice” (read: vengeance).

JOE LYKINS

Coeur d’Alene