I don't disagree with your main point, the carceral system is itself fundamentally broken, and fixing one thing won't suddenly make the system humane. The goal of a criminal justice system should be to reduce recidivism, to empower people through education to leave ready to have a more constructive and fulfilling life than when they arrived. We should respect the humanity of inmates, overturn wrongful convictions, eviscerate minimum sentencing guidelines, abolish stupid crimes that don't even represent a threat to society like prostitution, and apply state and federal minimum wages to inmates, among so many other changes.

There's so much inhumanity in the system, to your point. We can and should revisit convictions, and try to make amends if we got it wrong. And it should really never look anything like putting people in a cage for life.

If they are innocent they still have the rest of their lives for that to be determined.

Once you kill an innocent, they don't get the rest of their natural life for that to be determined.

But that's kind of my point, the only humane method is not to kill people. Asking "but how do we do it" is like asking how to square a circle; there may be a couple of interesting things to learn along the way, but you won't find any satisfying answers to the question.

I get what you're saying, it's certainly a hard situation, and a rare one, but I think "truly nothing we can do" is an exceptionally rare situation.

But why is that person acting the way they are? People do things for reasons, even if they aren't good ones. Maybe the only way they can safely interact with people is via video chat, and respecting the humanity of the others around them means that's all they get. There are ways for them to get access to food, water, shelter, sunlight, even socialization, without physical access to others, and access to somebody to talk to who might be able to help them, even if the DSM doesn't have a specific diagnosis that describes them.

I think any system that deals with people who have done what society has labelled crime should seek to minimize harm, and maximize opportunities to grow for those who wish to take them. I don't think your "textbook" case for the death penalty achieves either of these aims.

You only need to look at the imbalance in death penalties by skin color to know something is wrong.

I was trying to find the specifics, but there was a doctor who did some experiments during the terror. there was one head whose eyes popped open and looked right at him when he shouted his name, and another head that went into the same basket as his rival that bit the other head on the cheek and couldn't be loosened for 2 hours.

if the guillotine blade went slightly higher, actually impacting the brain stem, it might be different, although I admit that we are all guessing. personally, if I were going to be guillotine'd, I would request that they replace the blade with a large weight and drop it directly on my head.

I think if you're splitting hairs on how to slaughter people, instead of talking about how it's a human rights abuse literally everywhere in the West except the USA, you're really just tacitly endorsing the death penalty.

Just because it's legal here doesn't mean it's not an atrocity. This is like splitting hairs over what gas to genocide Jews with during WWII instead of brainstorming on how to defeat the Nazis.

The death penalty is a massive human rights failure, and anyone suggesting anything but abolition is just pro-murder.

If the desecration of a living human being's body by perforating them with dozens of lead slugs is what you consider "humane" by any standard, you're a fucking psychopath. If your "humane" option involves a person being taken away in a body bag destined for a closed-casket funeral, you don't have any fucking humanity.

They're not really supposed to enjoy it though and I'm not super into someone being super into murdering someone.

Depends honestly but I think Tennessee is a single live and four blanks if human, if not then all live.

In some places and honestly more commonly it's the reverse 4 live 1 blank or wax.

It's a weird regional tradition thing somewhat like how a French gallow is different in construction than a Utah gallow or a Georgian gallow for that matter.