Elijah Page

The governor of South Dakota has now said that only Elijah Page himself can stop his execution. Page, who is only 25 years old, has halted all of his appeals and asked to be executed. His execution is schedule for 10 pm CDT tonight. If he does not stop his own execution by resuming his appeals, he will be the first person executed in South Dakota in 60 years.

The South Dakota governor initially stayed Page's execution in 2006 over concerns with the combination of drugs used in the lethal injection process. South Dakota has since changed the drug combination and the governor is now comfortable allowing the execution to proceed.

For more information, please see the AP story published here in the Houston Chronicle.

As those of you who have previously following this blog know, I sincerely object to the death penalty in all cases. I also believe that the execution of an inmate who is choosing to go to his own execution before completing his appeals is no less abhorrent than a State-scheduled execution.

Typically, before an inmate is executed, he or she is held in a solitary cell for 23 hours a day for years. Death row inmates are usually kept on a strict suicide watch. These suicide watches are part of the reason why I am convinced the State does not want "justice" through an execution but rather desires revenge or retribution. A State will put an inmate on suicide watch so that the inmate does not take his or her own life, but the instant the appeals are over, the State will be more than happy to do the job itself. In fact, during the last few days of a condemned individual's life, the suicide watches are increased so that the condemned cannot jump the gun and ruin the State's show. That says to me that the State wants to make sure people watch the inmate suffer and die; that the State wants to make sure the public knows that it is the decider, and it gets to decide fate.

I do not encourage suicide. I'm not sure who does; but if the State's goal is the death of the convicted, why not let them end their own suffering? And, query: if an individual is not afraid of death, does execution have any power over him? Maybe, maybe not. Of course, these are just questions for contemplation. I despise the idea of a condemned individual losing all hope and wanting to die, but at the same time, I can understand why they might want to. Perhaps it is wrong of me to think, but death does not scare me as it does some people. It is part of the cycle of life. I just don't think our deaths should be chosen for us - in any circumstances.