Your points are well taken. I am skeptical of the shortage as well and wonder why an alternative can not be procured. I often wonder why it is so complicated. Anesthesiologists put people under all day prior to surgery and people do not feel a thing while they are out. Surely we could come up with something similar.

I think a combination of things has led to the renewed interest in the electric chair. First, is the shortage that has developed of the drugs they use for lethal injections as a result of the boycotts on selling the drugs to the United States (because they know what the drugs will be used for). This has sparked debate not only about lethal injections, but about what alternative drugs are available and the alternative methods as well. The botched injections certainly don’t help people have confidance in the efficacy of injections as a means for enforcing the death penalty either.

I do not think that the death penalty will ever leave the vast majority of Southern states (Texas included). It would take a very dramatic sea change for the Federal Government to change the law and enforce it on the states either. As a country, we still approve drone strikes. We still approve assassination of American citizens.

I don’t think the concept of “Death” as a punishment for certain crimes will ever leave Oklahoma. That said, I’m sure the Oklahoma Legislature has assigned an ad hoc committee to explore the notion of revisiting the electric chair as an alternative to botched injections.