"Show Me" Concern for the Victims

A brutal crime has rocked the St. Louis area:

[The defendant, a teacher] is accused of attacking 17-year-old Ashley Reeves, of Millstadt, choking her three times, wrenching her neck to the near-breaking point and dumping her body in Belleville’s Citizens Park on April 27.

Make no mistake, the accused isn't eligible for the death penalty. But in light of the "heinous and brutal" nature of that crime, it seemed particularly jarring to read that a federal judge in Missouri has halted executions in the state because of concern that inmates are confronting an unnecessary risk of "unconstitutional pain and suffering." (In part, the judge criticizes the protocols because the doctor mixing the "lethal cocktail" is dyslexic -- an outrageous slur on the competence and efficiency of dyslexics, who actually tend to have IQs that are significantly higher than normal).

No one wants the death penalty administered in a blatantly inhumane or unconstitutional manner. But even as federal judges get very finicky about the way that criminals are dispatched, it's hard not to remember that Ashley Reeves was left for dead in a Belleville Park, and remained there 30 hours before being found. Presumably, the victims of the murderers whose sentences are being stayed suffered even more at the hands of even more vicious criminals.

So forgive me if I'm just a touch more concerned about the well-being of victims like Ashley than the comfort of criminals as they depart for the hereafter.