On March 19, I served as a witness to the execution of a man named Aaron Gunches, Arizona’s first since 2022. During his time on death row, he begged for death and was ultimately granted what is likely more appropriately described as an emotionless state-assisted suicide. This experience has profoundly impacted me, leading to deep reflection on the nature of death, humanity, and the role we play in our final moments. When someone is in the end stages of life, we talk about hospice care, comfort, care, easing suffering and humane death. We strive for a “good death” — a peaceful transition. I’ve seen good ones, and I’ve seen bad, unplanned ones.
“Individuals increasingly find themselves in cages unfit for lab mice and subjected to conditions with less scrutiny than that of invertebrate species kept in aquariums.” One hundred and thirty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged the devastating effects of solitary confinement. In an 1890 ruling declaring that Colorado had improperly subjected a man named James Medley to isolation, the court noted the practice had deleterious effects on the human psyche, including turning people “violently insane.” The court noted that others committed suicide, while “those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity.”