but the stocks could be great... for bankers at least 
That assumes that bankers ever go to prison, their wealth and influence always helps them to slime their way out.
I really dont get the whole cocktail of drugs thing. There are so many ways to kill a person quickly efficiently and relatively painlessly. An OD of morphine will do the job, the criminal will go into a coma and then their breathing will stop, relatively quickly too. Inject a large enough quantity of just about anything into a person and it will kill them in short order, why do they have to use all kinds of special drugs? Any anesthesia will work.
Hell, we could even use the spike guns used by the farming industry to kill livestock. Its a re-usable spike to the brain and pretty much instant death. If you destroy the brain well enough there is literally no possibility of pain, failure or the execution taking too long.
A gas chamber with Carbon Monoxide instead of that nasty stuff they usually gave them. Carbon Monoxide is a GUARANTEED quick & painless death. A little woozy...a gentle sleep...a very peaceful corpse.
That said, with the occasional innocent person getting executed, I think we should stop executions or reserve them only for the worst cases that are totally proven, for the Bundys, Alcalas, Dahmers, Sowells, Gacys, etc. of the world...or the worst overthrown political despots & their closest & equally-guilty cronies.
Otherwise, the worst should get life in prison without parole & spend the rest of their lives making license plates & stuff. Lesser but still serious (including white-collar crooks & professional con artists) should get manual labor (but humane, with water & a brief lunch period). The rest can get rehabilitation & folks busted for lighter stuff like drug possession will just pay a stiff fine but no jail time.
I think there should be isolated colonies for psychopathic types & sex offenders. If a lawmaker is merciful but is aware that these people are incurable, they should just have a colony, commune or kibbutz for those guys.
Perhaps we should strive to take the higher road. Norway has an EXTREMELY humane system & they're doing great! It works!
Perhaps the worst of the worst should stay in a colony & the rest in Norwegian-style prison with the drugs/prostitution/lighter felonies getting a big fine & counseling (unless the drug offender is a big cartel drug kingpin or something....or just legalize most of the stuff).
