UPDATE: Shamed Into It, Alabama's GOP Governor "Pauses" All Executions...

While this is good news. . . it is disgusting that it took a series of botched executions to get here.

And "botched" is far too kind a term for what -- in at least two cases -- occurred. What occurred. . . was torture. Barbarous, hours long. . . torture. Here's the latest:

. . .[GOP] Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey sought a pause in executions and ordered a “top-to-bottom” review of the state's capital punishment system Monday after an unprecedented third failed lethal injection.

Ivey's office issued a statement saying she had both asked Attorney General Steve Marshall to withdraw motions seeking execution dates for two inmates and requested that the Department of Corrections undertake a full review of the state's execution process. . . .

But this does mean that Clarence Thomas will not, for quite a while now, be able to. . . kill Kenneth Smith with a stroke of his mighty pen. Out.

नमस्ते