"You are gathered to witness due and lawful punishment," announced Richard grandly.

"It is the policy of the United States that those who commit acts of violence against a democratic state should receive prompt and lawful punishment."

The breathtaking backwardness of Mr. Zimmer's position is only apparent when one realizes that he is talking of execution as the avoided lawful punishment.

It is only a lawful punishment if in fact there is a narrowing process done by the state, so that the bulk of people who perpetrate murder are not death eligible.

The way he sees it, it is "just as wrong for a guilty person to avoid lawful punishment as it is for an innocent person to be convicted."

"The moral force of retribution is lost if an inmate believes that his execution is being carried out through a conspiracy of demonic forces rather than as a lawful punishment for a horrific crime," their brief argues.

He pointed out that as the law stood, he himself could have been found guilty of a crime in not carrying out the lawful punishment and, as no woman had been burnt alive in the kingdom for over fifty years, so could all those still alive who had held an official position at all of the previous burnings.