© AFP Photo / Erik S. Lesser
After a series of lethal injections that have gone terribly awry in recent months, an influential federal judge has called for the return of firing squads.
Speaking to AP on Thursday, Alex Kozinski reiterated his longstanding disdain for lethal injections, citing drug shortages and legal challenges. He said firing squads would never be scrambling to find guns or bullets.
"I've always thought executions should be executions," he said, "not medical procedures."
Kozinski, who serves as chief judge of the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals, first proposed changing America's preferred method of capital punishment days before Joseph Rudolph Wood III was left gasping and snorting on a lethal injection gurney for 90 minutes - expiring two hours after the execution began.
Somewhat ironically, despite an impassioned screed against lethal injection in a decision on Monday, Kozinski, a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, was at the same time arguing that Wood's execution should go ahead in Phoenix.
The crux of Kozinski's argument is simple: if society has decided it is going to kill people, than don't try to dress it up as anything other than a killing.
Comment: This is another flight crash on the heels of Flight MH17, AH5017,GE222.