The Nation: Socrates' Way

Humanitarianism can take root in the flintiest soil. Even killing ground. While the national debate about the death penalty goes on, the Texas Senate last week passed a bill to make the method of execution in Texas "injection of a substance in a quantity to cause death." Electric chairs now wait for the some 58 inmates on Texas' death row, and Representative Ben Grant, who sponsored the original assembly bill, explains: "We've gone from stoning to the cross to the guillotine and now we need a more modern method. The current ritual of burning a person to death is a horrible...

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