Lethal Injection Closes Loopholes

Hanging would have been too good for obese double murderer Mitchell Rupe - even if the process had ripped his head off as he feared.

The two bank tellers he shot dead during a 1981 robbery - Twila Capron and Candace Hemmig - had no say in how they would die. Their executioner shouldn’t have either. Gallows. Firing squad. Electric chair. Lethal injection. Most methods of execution show more mercy than mad-dog killers such as Rupe showed toward those they slaughtered.

Unfortunately, in September 1994, Rupe’s defense attorneys persuaded a finicky federal judge that the prospect of accidental beheading in Rupe’s case would be cruel and unusual punishment. The judge gave more weight to Rupe’s bulk than to the quick, clean executions carried out by Washington authorities this decade against triple murderer Charles Campbell and child torturer Westley Dodd.

Rupe’s death penalty was set aside. In the process, the state of Washington wasted $150,000 defending its right to hang this death row Pillsbury doughboy. And the frustrated families of his two victims were denied justice - as was the public.

Now, the Washington Legislature wisely has moved to close the loophole through which Rupe squeezed his 410-pound frame. Earlier this month, both houses voted overwhelmingly to make death by lethal injection the preferred method of execution in the state, with death by hanging a backup option.

Until now, Washington was one of only four states that executed by hanging, although a condemned man could choose lethal injection instead.

Last year, House conservatives blocked the change for understandable reasons. Some lawmakers feared the switch would give current death row inmates new fuel for appeals; others commented that the noose is a better punishment than the needle.

But the needle is just as effective as the noose and, more importantly, has far less shock value. Maybe that’s why death by injection has been upheld in 19 states.

“Brutal” executions attract death-penalty opponents like swamps draw mosquitoes. In late January, Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union unsuccessfully pestered Utah officials to spare John Albert Taylor, “a remorseless pedophile” who raped and strangled an 11-year-old girl.

Shrewdly, Taylor chose to be shot because he knew a firing-squad execution would be costly and embarrass Utah. Also, he feared “flipping around like a fish out of water” if given an injection - which, if it were true, would be another reason to opt for the needle.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board