It Is Ended

SO IT HAS ENDED. The nightmare of judicial execution by dehydration is finally over. How could such a thing have happened? Students of law, medicine, and ethics will examine this tragedy for decades to come.

Any system charged with the management of human affairs will fail on occasion. We must recognize that it is often unwise to change procedures long in place, lest unintended adverse consequences supervene. That said, it is time to examine how our system of justice went so badly off the rails, and to ask what lessons might be learned.