On the Last Week Tonight show, John Oliver did an updated episode on the death penalty in the United States in which he perfectly summed up what is wrong with the red state Republicans in Alabama.
Oliver said:
And earlier this year, Alabama carried out the very first nitrogen gas execution, which was, by all accounts, absolutely horrific. One witness described the dead man as someone fighting for his life. And another who had witnessed five executions said it was definitely the most violent execution he had ever witnessed.
All of which makes it rather galling that the state AG later took this victory lap thanking his entire enforcement team. “Everyone in this room knows that they are the first team in the country to perform a nitrogen execution. And what happened last night is by the book. They deserve so much thanks and credit for being willing to step up first in the country to do it , and now I suspect many states will follow. As of last night, nitrogen epoxy as a means of execution is no longer an untested method. It’s a proven thing.”
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Yes, he called it a textbook performance, which I would call textbook bullshit. And by the way, Alabama, do you ever get tired of being pioneers in all the worst ways? The history of your state is nothing but brave Alabamians protesting while your leaders are the last to do something good or the first to do something terrible.
Video:
From Oliver and his team assembling evidence that suggests states and the Trump administration obtained the drugs used in executions from a factory that produces them illegally to discussing the barbaric ways in which the United States continues to insist on executing criminals, this episode was a worthy follow-up to the two Last Week Tonight previously did on the topic.
It’s a shame that Warner Brothers/Discovery has adopted the idiotic policy of not releasing clips from Last Week Tonight until Thursday because John Oliver’s latest episode is truly a matter of life and death.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a member of the White House press pool and a congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and professional memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association