![[by Ian Shoales]](shoalesname.gif){kind=small}
Death's little bureaucrats
The State of California put "Freeway Killer" William Bonin to sleep on February 23, and the media haven't stopped complaining about it since.
Were reporters appalled by the execution? Oh no. Reporters were upset because they weren't sure whether they had seen an execution or not. As Sam Stanton from the Sacramento Bee said, "I'm not sure what we witnessed."
What did they see? Witnesses seem to agree that curtains were opened, revealing William Bonin, eyes closed, lying on a gurney. His chest heaved once, maybe twice. A few minutes later officials came out, announced he was dead, and thanked everybody for coming. Maybe they handed out some little mints.
S.F. Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan said it was "less involving than watching a vet put down a dog" and that Bonin looked like he "was being anesthetized for surgery." An editorial called the execution "clinically antiseptic" and "coldly efficient." In a television interview, I heard public radio reporter Jason Beaubien express disappointment in what he rather tellingly called a "show."
The consensus of witnesses: total rip-off. They paid for a carnival and didn't even see a freak.
The Department of Corrections, in response to these bizarre criticisms, said they weren't trying to hide the process from the public, but to protect the identity of department employees who led the killer into the chamber.
In other words, the private sector wants more bang for its buck, death penaltywise. To accommodate them, the public sector wants to give us more bangs, but to muffle them so we can't identify them as bangs, thus maximizing their potential per tax dollar.
Face it: the death penalty is just an opportunity to create another faceless bureaucracy. One drone takes bids for the toxins to be used, another draws up the purchase orders, one distributes them to the designated carriers, three carry the syringes, ten strap the killer down... Who knows how many civil servants it takes to put a murderer on ice?
Next page: Execution processors vs. disgruntled citizens with sharpened objects
