In reply to:

this most horrible, barbaric closing of the door

Are you referring to the death penalty in general or to lethal injection in particular? The first two drugs given (sodium thiopental and pancuronium bromide) are used or have been used for routine anesthesia for surgery, so they have a pretty good idea that these drugs cause a painless loss of consciousness and cessation of breathing. It's the only form of execution I know of wherein the condemned is premedicated to feel good before dying. I understand that some people are opposed to the death penalty in any form, period, but I honestly don't see what is so barbaric about this particular method. Firing squad, hanging, gas chamber, not to mention ye olde chopping blocke, all seem pretty barbaric in comparison.

The real discomfort is the emotional stress, waiting on death row. The Japanese have a particularly suspense-filled approach to capital punishment: the condemned prisoner does not know his date of execution, so every morning he wonders if this is the day that the jailers will walk to his cell and summon him. When their time is up, prisoners are given 15 mintues to clean their cell (now there's some nerve! I'd refuse...what are they going to do, kill me?) and then off they go to their death.

Speaking of which, why do we use the term "capital punishment"? Is it a reference to the head, as in beheading? Corporal punishment on the other hand is nonlethal physical punishment to the body or corpus.