Florida executes man who wanted death sentence
I'm stuck in prison the rest of my life. There's no way of getting out. I'm not being in there. I can't handle it.
- John Blackwelder
The message goes out to every lifer in the state. If you don't like your life in prison, kill a prison worker or kill a fellow inmate and the state will assist in your suicide.
- Abe Bonowitz, Exec. Dir., Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Here's a good argument for why states should not be in the execution business. An inmate decides that he cannot handle his life in prison, but he doesn't have the balls to commit suicide on his own. So, he murders an innocent inmate, thereby forcing the state of Florida into the position of having to grant the inmate's wish. The executioner throws the switch on what is essentially a very public and state-funded suicide.
Death penalty opponents said executing Blackwelder would send a dangerous message to all prisoners serving life sentences....
Death penalty critics said Blackwelder is the seventh Florida prisoner to "volunteer" for execution in recent years. Others, including serial killer Aileen Wournos and anti-abortion activists Paul Hill, dropped appeals guaranteed under Florida's death penalty statute.
SHOULD taxpayer dollars go to funding what in the final analysis are merely inmate suicides? If the purpose of incarceration is punishment, then the answer must clearly be no. Rather than allowing these people the opportunity to prey on the general prison population, why not segregate them? Certainly prison officials should be able to isolate inmates if they are determined to be looking for a state-funded suicide. Of course, identifying these people may well prove to be a very difficult, if not impossible task. It may seem cruel and inhuman to some, but does it make any more sense than waiting for an inmate to murder another inmate in order to obtain his or her date with the executioner?
Speaking for myself, and only for myself, I don't want my tax dollars used to execute an inmate because he lacked the cojones to do the job himself. Common sense would seem to dictate that we can do better than this. Then again, there is little about the way the death penalty is administered in this country that makes sense.
