In his insistence that condemned prisoners refrain from criticizing their captors and killers,AZ Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryanis historically typical. The people who officiate at executions seem to value politeness. The executioner never seems angry. The prisoner is killed, but the killing is strangely passionless. It just seems to be the end result of a bureaucratic procedure, something that the rules demand.

After witnessing the killing of Mary, Queen of Scots, Robert Wynkf...