In efforts to widen their horizons in terms of methods of murder, Mississippi lawmakers are advancing a proposal to add firing squads, electrocution and gas chambers as legal execution methods.
House Bill 638 was a bill drafted to combat the multitudinous lawsuits in which lethal injections, Mississippi’s only execution method, were claimed to be in violation of constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. According to House Judiciary B Committee Chairman Andy Gipson, a Republican, this bill is a response to lawsuits filed by “liberal, left-wing radicals.”
Frighteningly, the bill passed the House despite opposition Wednesday, and it now moves to the Senate for more discussion. The death penalty is in defiance of the eighth amendment presently as examples from states like Oklahoma illustrate the excruciating and convoluted pain inflicted upon victims of lethal injections. But this bill elevates the magnitude of the death penalty and is a drastic step towards barbarism.
In a country in which police brutality runs rampant and prisoners are the slaves of the prison industrial complex, we are witnessing components of fascism being popularized in the United States. This bill illustrates the radical extremism of the right and it’s efforts to dismantle the constitution when it doesn’t fit their agenda.
Republican Lawmakers in five states have proposed bills to criminalize peaceful protesters and the freedom of the press has consistently been threatened by the Trump administration.
The United State’s core values are at stake and this bill is only another weapon wielded by the GOP to restrict our constitutional rights.
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