by Don Feder

About the author: Don Feder is a nationally syndicated columnist.

Opponents of the death penalty have made an astonishing discovery—execution hurts. Armed with this vital information, they hope to win over the 75 to 80 percent of us who support capital punishment.

They are convinced that recent executions in Utah and Delaware—one by firing squad, the other by hanging—will strengthen their case. Lethal injection is said to be antiseptic. It doesn't fully convey the horror of the state taking a human life.

But the brutality of these archaic forms of execution cannot fail to change the public's mind, bleeding hearts bleated.

"The first reaction is disbelief," says Bill Breedlove of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "People are disgusted by it."

The media help the cause. Stories focused on how many...