Ol' Sparky makes a comeback

Tennessee legislators took a giant and deadly step backward in the inexorable drive to abolish the death penalty when they passed legislation reinstating the electric chair in the Volunteer State. They did this so Tennessee can keep killing undesirables when drugs used in lethal injection are not available due to drug companies refusing to sell their wares for state sponsored killing. Tennessee becomes the first state to reinstate the electric cha...ir which had been abandoned in all 50 states due to both its cost and more importantly, its grisly nature. Lethal injection, the only specified execution method used in the 32 states still in the execution business, is on its way out. State officials in those backward states are scrambling to find a cheap, easy and humane way to accomplish what never is humane, ennobling or worthy of a civilized society. Ol' Sparky has killed enough - thousands since the first electrocution in 1890. Enough condemned have had blood gush from their heads or burst into flames or refuse to die while writhing for many agonizing seconds. And more than a few have been innocent...or strapped in Ol' Sparky rather than imprisoned simply because they were black. The only thing state legislators in Tennessee should volunteer for is to make The Volunteer State the 19th to abolish capital punishment.