Three drugs are given to kill a person by injection. One medication causes sedation, another paralyzes the muscles, and potassium stops the heart.

One argument for considering this "cruel and unusual" is that the person may not be unconscious when the medications that paralyze him and stop his heart are given. Even if his eyes are closed, he appears unconscious and he can't move a muscle, he may be wide awake to experience the inability to take a breath and the cessation of his heartbeat.

The death penalty is our solution for murder. We hear about murder, watch it on TV and see it in the movies. We kill characters off with aplomb in video games. Murder has become no more meaningful to us than the terrible crimes of serial killers that popular authors depict in vivid detail.

In real life, every murder has a human face.

My college roommate and her husband were murdered in their home for credit cards and a car. The two teenagers were quickly caught and convicted. I don't know the results of the sentencing hearing, and it doesn't matter. My friend is gone and she cannot be replaced.

A sociology professor told our class he believed murderers, specifically serial killers, should be confined and studied. If we kill the killers, he insisted, we won't know why they kill. If the reason people kill each other is psychological or sociological, or if the answer is hidden in their DNA, maybe something can be done to stop it.

Death at the hands of another human being is horrifying. In the state of Florida, some murderers face the same fate as their victims. It is the ultimate penalty. It is our revenge. It is the worst we can do to someone. And it doesn't change anything.

Margaret Belcher is a trauma clinician