Bring back the guillotine
Posted by BrianOCALA, Florida (AP) — Gov. Jeb Bush suspended executions in Florida after a medical examiner said Friday that prison officials botched the insertion of the needles when a convicted killer was put to death earlier this week.
Separately, a federal judge in California imposed a moratorium on executions in the nation’s most populous state, declaring that the state’s method of lethal injection runs the risk of violating the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled in San Jose that California’s “implementation of lethal injection is broken.”
I’m sorry, but I can’t think of many methods of execution that are “cruel and unusual” when evaluated with respect to the crime that was committed to earn a spot on death row.
I am sensitive to the issue of people being wrongly placed on death row. It’s an unimaginable travesty for someone’s life to be taken away due to error, unfortunate circumstances, or any other reason. But the method of execution is a wholly separate beast and I say do whatever is necessary to get the job done at the least expense to the public.
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December 16th, 2006 at 12:03 am
I think, in the case of lethal injection, I would rather be shot in the back of the head. The more and more I hear about it, the more and more it scares the h*** out of me. The execution that prompted this, in particular, sounds like something that came straight out of a horror movie, and according to autopsies, it isn’t that rare with the exception of the time it takes the person to die. Here’s what happens: The first injection renders you unconcious and paralysis sets in, the second stops your breathing, and the third stops your heart. What they are finding is that many of these people, due to weight or drug tolerances, are still aware at the time that their breathing and heart stops. Imagine being trapped in your own body as you are being burried alive, fully aware, but unable to express anything. In this man’s case, it took him over 30 minutes to die, and he was able to express pain by grimacing and making other facial expressions. They even had to give him a second dose of the drugs. Like I said, I’d rather be shot in the back of the head. The problem could be solved if they had anesthesiologists performing the executions, but their hypocratic oath prevents them from doing so.
December 16th, 2006 at 12:33 am
It certainly doesn’t sound like a walk in the park.
Imagine being hacked to death with a hatchet or gunned down at close range by a racist. Giving a murderer an extra 30 minutes to reflect on the pain and suffering they have caused while they are “burning alive” does not seem unreasonable.
I would also prefer a quick death. I thought about saying the government should bill the family for the bullet, but the administrative efforts would probably cost more than the price of a bullet.
If I could pick any method of execution I would want to be thrown off a tall cliff. The fall would be exhilarating and the impact would likely cause instant death. It would help if there were topless women chasing me off the cliff, but beggars can’t be choosers.
December 16th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Problem is, this guy kept insisting he was innocent right up until the very end. I can’t help this nagging feeling that, some day, he may be proven innocent. Some of these people have been. I’d hate to think that we’d execute an innocent man, regardless, but to think that we practically tortured him to death is even worse.
December 16th, 2006 at 11:44 am
I would be interested to know what percentage of death row inmates claim to be innocent. I’m guessing that it is grossly higher than the percentage that is actually innocent. While it makes me queasy to put a person to death who professes his innocence it would be foolish to make an admission of guilt a prerequisite for capital punishment. No one would ever admit to anything.
Your “practically tortured” statement makes me wonder if we, we being society, try to humanely kill (oxymoron alert) people simply so that we can take some solace in the fact that “at least we didn’t torture him” if our basis for execution proves to be unfounded. To me, adding the torture to the actual execution is a relatively insignificant measure. I say relatively because robbing someone of their life without justification ranks about 99.9 out of 100 on my inhumane scale. The torture element bumps up the number to a full 100 out of 100.