Bill Wiseman, the for­mer Oklahoma leg­is­la­tor who intro­duced lethal injec­tion as a method of exe­cu­tion in the U.S. in order to make death row inmates’ deaths more humane, now regrets hav­ing pushed the con­cept into law. He notes that he intro­duced the mea­sure in order to ease his shame for hav­ing vot­ed to restore the death penal­ty in Oklahoma, stat­ing, ​“I’m sor­ry for what I did. I hope some­day to off­set it by help­ing us real­ize that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is wrong and self-destruc­tive.” While dis­cussing recent court chal­lenges regard­ing lethal injec­tion prac­tices, Wiseman stat­ed, ​“I’m aware of my respon­si­bil­i­ty. It keeps me tied to the prob­lem. And the prob­lem is that we’re killing peo­ple. That’s what’s wrong, not how we’re doing it.” Wiseman is no longer an elect­ed offi­cial and was recent­ly ordained as an Episcopal priest. 

(Mother Jones, September/​October 2005). See Methods of Execution and New Voices.

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