Hardly Unusual and Only Briefly Cruel

Justice has been visited upon a heinous felon in the Christian state of Alabama which, given the ongoing shortage of drugs for lethal injection, has resorted to suffocation by gassing. Those who object that the eighth amendment to the constitution of the United States forbids cruel and unusual punishment were reminded that this does not amount to a guarantee of painless death; although the federal judge who made the ruling did at least have the good grace to acknowledge that death by suffocation may involve "discomfort, panic and emotional distress." Fortunately, the case against this particular felon was unencumbered by the testimony of mere experts, and his melanin content was appropriate to the constitution's relevance being at best debatable.