Never in my life has a conservative state banned the death penalty, that is, until this week. Many congratulations to Ernie Chambers, who will stand as a symbol for rationalist perseverance in the face of faith-based nonsense for generations to come.
The maps of the week are courtesy of NPR. They mapped out all the various death penalties by state, using a weird hexagonal format which is generated by JavaScript. It is a little odd, and surely disproportionate to anything significant (other than number of Senators) but it does get the message across in a quick and easily comprehensible way. Unsurprisingly, Oklahoma is unsurpassed in terms of how many different ways we can kill convicts.
In Oklahoma electrocution may be used if both lethal injection and nitrogen gas are found unconstitutional. The firing squad may be used if electrocution is also found unconstitutional.
When it comes to killing people who are already thoroughly neutralized, my home state is truly open-minded.
