Let 'Em Eat Rope

This is not another piece where I swear the merits (even virtues) of the death penalty. Everyone by now knows that I believe in nothing else but DEATH for murderers so there is little point dredging up that severely flogged horse. (If ever a horse deserved being put out to stud, it is this knackered mule.)
This is about the METHOD used, or not being used as is more and more becoming the way. Back when Britain hanged its killers (instead of letting them loose to cause more mayhem after a paltry sentence as we seem to do now) the sole method was 'hanged by the neck until you are dead.' We were damned effective at it too with executioners like the great Pierrepoint, getting the condemned from his/her cell to the scaffold and hung in a mere 7 seconds. No last family visits or television interviews from death row, or a soft media attempting to show the killer in a forgiving light. No hoo-ha or trumpeting and releasing of the inmates last meal.
And without the circus, or more to the point without having a choice of different methods, the criminals went swifly to meet their punishment. Fast forward to today, if we look at the United States we see that this is not now the case. There the murderer is allowed appeal after appeal and can halt their date with death with the smallest of details. Today (26th October, 2010) is a perfect example. A brutal killer was due to die but now a judge in has blocked the scheduled execution saying 'more time is needed to consider the inmate's challenge of the state's use of a knockout drug from an unidentified source.'
Now I am not going to sit here and scoff at America's justice system and pick faults with it because that would be ridiculous coming from someone living in a place like Britain. I wish ALL the US States were like Texas who have no hesitation in putting murderers in their rightful place (ie the grave.) However the process could and should be less of a hassle and if it were then even more inmates would be pushing up daffodils.
It all got messy when people decided they wanted to be more 'humane' in putting the condemned to death. Other methods than the noose were looked into all in the eagerness to sanitise the death penalty.

Step this way

First up was the electric chair and while 'Old Sparky' was accepted after a shaky start (and is now an American icon) still it wasn't enough. Gas chambers were also popular for a time but were soon relegated when lethal injection arrived in prison death chambers. Ah lethal injection! Now this sounded like the deal maker, just what the public wanted to satisfy their need for justice, while at the same time making the execution method look no worse than visiting the dentist.
So in came the chemicals (sodium thiopental, pancuronium and potassium chloride) to wash the States hands of the more violent noose or chair. And now it has been reduced to one chemical (sodium thiopental) to put the inmate in his rightful place. (Im using the masculine 'his' purely because more men are put to death than women, at least in America.)
All this has played straight into the hands of the criminal because the more 'fiddly' the method, the more chance it has of breaching one of the prisoners rights. They can argue that the chemicals take too long to act or that they are allergic to them, and even make the case that lethal injection would be impossible due to prolonged drug abuse while in the free world. There are a whole manner of ways and exscuses to delay getting the fatal jab and sometimes avoid receiving it all .
I cannot help to think that the United States would have done well to stick to Great Britains near (not total) flawless method. Heck even the firing squad (which don't forget America also employed) had less things to go wrong than the needle. But let us not stray off the point and argue effectiveness. The simple fact of the matter is that every country which still sentences its murderers to death ought to use the gallows. It serves two important uses, namely that it is both swift in dealing out death and shows the rest of the world that YES death is on offer for perpetrators of violent crimes and NO we don't care a damn who knows it.
It is honest and upfront and far better than skulking behind curtains trying to dig for a useable vein because doing it that way only makes the watching world believe that while death is on the books, it is not truly comfortable in actually carrying the sentence out.
I for one am convinced that should it carry on like it is now then executions will become a thing of the past and when that happens all is lost. The way forward is erecting scaffolds and not being afraid of doing so. They needn't be public, just the knowledge they are used would be sufficient. A simple ONE WAY exit to the trapdoor without all this faffing around with different methods and chemicals. Doing it that way is sure way to get sidetracked and lose grip on the law.