What's it mean to have 'painless' execution?

What a wonderful world it would be if Nevada could get rid of its Death Row, abolish the death penalty and never have to execute another human being.

That would come about, by our way of thinking, only if there were never another first-degree murder.

Sadly, however, we expect people will go on killing people. And according to Nevada law, if the right circumstances exist, the murderers are sent to Nevada State Prison in Carson City to draw their last breath.

How that execution is conducted is the topic of debate as the U.S. Supreme Court determines whether lethal injections in Florida are "cruel and unusual punishment" and therefore unconstitutional. Nevada also uses lethal injection, though it may not be the same mix of drugs.

If the Supreme Court is looking for a humane way to kill humans, there may be no such thing.

Nevada is known for innovation in the means of execution. Until 1911, murderers were hanged. Then they were given the choice of being shot or hung. One was shot by Nevada's most famous execution apparatus, the three-rifle "execution machine," in 1913. In 1924, Gee Jon was the first person in Nevada and the country to be executed by lethal gas. Injections began in 1985.

All of these likely involved some measure of pain - a standard for evaluating cruel and unusual punishment. Yet there is pain in life, and there is almost always going to be pain in death.

If the goal is to abolish the death penalty, then address it on some other terms than cruel and unusual punishment. For who can say that spending life in prison, waiting to die of old age, involves no pain?

There's no reason for unnecessary suffering on the execution table. Lethal injections seem to be the most efficient, bloodless means - and, even so, are often traumatic for witnesses.

But the elimination of pain in executions is a realistic goal only if you believe the world also someday will eliminate murder.