That just about describes today's New York Times editorial railing against the use of lethal injection for the death penalty.

We believe that the death penalty is in all cases unconstitutional ...

Because the world's hardest substance is the skull of a New York Times editorial writer. The editorial bases its constitutional argument on the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The Times' legal scholars somehow believe that the Eighth Amendment overrules the Fifth Amendment (which prohibits any person of being deprived of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law), which was passed at the same time. It was understood at the time it was passed that the Bill of Rights wasn't banning capital punishment.

Why can't Times editorial writers just stick with encouraging the abolition of the death penalty without resorting to trying to make it unconstitutional? There's nothing in the constitution which prevents states, or even the federal government with doing away with it on their own -- and some states have.

Now back to why lethal injection is "cruel":

In lethal injection, three different chemicals are administered in sequence. The first is an anesthetic, another paralyzes the muscles and stops breathing, and a third stops the heart. Improper administration of the anesthetic can have the ghoulish effect of leaving the prisoner able to feel the tremendous pain of being killed by the poison that is injected into him while rendering him unable to communicate his agony by sound or gestures.

In a "friend of the court" brief, Physicians for Human Rights warned that if the chemicals weren't used correctly, they could "cause an inmate to suffocate, while consciously experiencing the blinding pain of" a coronary arrest. Meanwhile, it said, "onlookers believe him to be unconscious and insensitive to any pain."

In just about every death penalty case, this is a far better death than what the murderer's victim got.

If they want to make it quick and painless, then why not just a topical anesthetic and the guillotine?