Sense Sonnet - Acher

Death Penalty Penalty

My job is as a prison guard.
A condemned man was set to die.
Executions are always hard
By lethal injection, and why
Is because most doctors won't be
There to assist, on moral grounds.
Thus, death is done improperly
By guards like me. Havoc abounds -
Like when the condemned in this case
Was full of poison, but awake.
Agony was all in his face.
I shot him dead, for mercy's sake.

Though what I did may be a crime.
I had to do it at the time.