Governor Ronald Reagan last week signed a bill imposing a mandatory death penalty on those convicted of eleven specific kinds of murder. The California law, which will take effect Jan. 1, is designed to get around the Supreme Court's objections to the arbitrary and capricious use of capital punishment. If the bill passes constitutional muster, California will again use the gas chamber. Reagan, however, was not entirely comfortable about that method of execution or indeed any of the methods in use around the world, ranging from the noose to the firing squad and the guillotine, which was originally adopted in France in 1792 upon the urging of a compassionate French doctor, Joseph
Ignace Guillotin, anxious to ease the condemned's suffering.
"Being a former farmer and horse raiser," Reagan said, "I know what it's like to try to eliminate an injured horse by shooting him. Now you call the veterinarian and the vet gives it a shot and the horse goes to sleep—that's it. I myself have wondered if maybe this isn't part of our problem [with capital punishment], if maybe we should review and see if there aren't even more humane methods now—the simple shot or tranquilizer. I think maybe there should be more study on this to find out, is there a more humane way, can we still improve our humanity?"