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Hangman's knot: No space for repentance and reconciliation

Killing people is a grisly business, even in the case of capital punishment. In Florida last year executioners found Angel Nieves Diaz still moving 24 minutes after the first administration of lethal drugs. They had mistakenly injected the drugs into the soft tissue of his arm instead of into a blood vessel. It took a second dose and a total of 34 minutes for him to be declared dead—at least twice the time normally needed. Opponents of the death penalty have long argued that lethal injection is more painful than its advocates claim and than most people realize.