The Hill News

On March 10, Ohio carried out an execution using a method that had never been tried before in the U.S.â€"a continuous dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital was administered until death occurred for Johnnie Baston. Coincidentally, in an unrelated event, Ohio's electric chair was relegated to a museum, displayed along with artifacts from the Ku Klux Klan and a cage used to house mental patients. 

Although the museum pieces were clearly meant to show the dark side of Ohio's discredited past, the newest lethal-injection method has been viewed as cutting-edge technology in the business of capital punishment. Ohio has execution dates scheduled right into 2012.
 
It is often hard to see the present with the same clarity that we apply to the past. But it is likely that someday the idea of strapping people onto a table with deadly chemicals flowing through IV-tubes into their arms and watching them die will also be seen as barbaric.

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