Good Law | Bad Law

We are approaching the January 20th inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden. As the days wane, President Trump intends to break a 130-year-old precedent of pausing executions amid a transition of presidential power. Trump has five executions slated to happen over the next few weeks and if they all take place, Trump will become the most prolific execution president in more than a century. Today we are reposting episode #102 to shed light on the death penalty and lethal injections as Aaron and Dr. Joel Zivot discuss the moral and ethical challenges of the death penalty as well as the 8th Amendment and prisoner rights.   What are the moral and ethical challenges with the death penalty today?  Not even so much whether to have a death penalty – which is a crucially important question, of course – but what are the moral dimensions of using lethal injection to carry out executions?  And what moral implications are there because medicine used to heal, here is used to kill?  And what about the requirement that he