Stardate 20010821.0552 (On Screen): The state of Illinois uses both lethal injection and the electric chair to perform executions. A prisoner there, condemned to die on September 12, is insisting on the use of the electric chair. He's using interesting logic to try to set up a paradox for the state: "If you are going to execute me, then I insist that you use the electric chair. But the electric chair is 'cruel and unusual' and constitutionally then you can't execute me at all. So I insist that you commute my sentence." Which means that all he's saying is "I don't want to die."
That's quite understandable; few people are executed willingly, though most ultimately accept their fate and don't resist during the final minutes. But the logic is obviously flawed, because the state can answer that lethal injection is not "cruel and unusual" and that they can carry out the execution that way in complete legality. (Which, for the moment, is true.) A prisoner's request for manner of execution isn't binding, though it is sometimes honored. (discuss)
