Ep. 25 - Drench the Spark

The Relentless Picnic

To die, to sleep — perchance to be judged no longer viable in society and sentenced to burn alive from within. Who is truly avenged by our cocktails of untested heartstoppers? Justices: why did we stop, then start, doing this again? Join us at the top of the scaffold of lies we tell ourselves, where we countenance barbarisms and watch the clock till it runs all the way out. SOURCES: - Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975): http://a.co/eerXzt2 ; - 60 Minutes, "The Execution of Joseph Wood" (Nov. 29, 2015): http://bit.ly/2kgmw8Z ; - Oklahoma's KFOR-TV on Clayton Lockett's botched execution (Apr. 29, 2014); reporter Courtney Francisco, eyewitnessing: https://youtu.be/d06awQ1L2TM ; - Furman v. Georgia (1972): http://bit.ly/2kIZ6bH ; - news clips on the decision in Furman v. Georgia: https://youtu.be/yeOykQHeRlY?t=2m23s ; - Gregg v. Georgia (1976): http://bit.ly/2kfGh0d ; - a cartoon on the case, produced (amazingly) by the Georgia State Bar: https://youtu.be/3-BNkWHmCqg ; - Bloody Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Code ; http://bit.ly/2CB3Bwe - Two Treatises of Government, by John "Hornsbury" Locke (1689) ; - 30 for 30, Doc & Darryl (dir. Judd Apatow & Michael Bonfiglio, 2016): http://es.pn/2ASRfPt ; - Glossip v. Gross (2015): http://bit.ly/2oGy6Pc ; - J. Alito, for the 5-4 majority: http://bit.ly/2oBvBh0 ; - J. Breyer, dissenting: http://bit.ly/2CZtAOU (& published in handsome volume here: http://a.co/7M59QDr) ; - Nino, concurring: http://bit.ly/2Bxk19L ; - J. Thomas, concurring: http://bit.ly/2BIRZua ; - Audio & transcipts of oral arguments (argued Apr. 29, 2015) on Oyez here: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-7955 ; - Death Penalty Information Center: deathpenaltyinfo.org; fact sheet: http://bit.ly/2yiSHKz ; - Don Delillo, Americana (1989): http://a.co/bhyKIYp ; - music from the episode: http://bit.ly/2kHBjbX ; FURTHER READING: - McGautha v. California (1971), in which J. Harlan, writing for the court (6-3), said: "To identify before the fact those characteristics of criminal homicides and their perpetrators which call for the death penalty, and to express these characteristics in language which can be fairly understood and applied by the sentencing authority, appear to be tasks which are beyond present human ability." http://bit.ly/2kIHVqH