In America: “You’re not entitled to a pain-free execution”

[kpete]

In court proceedings last week, an Ohio state prosecutor said bluntly: “You’re not entitled to a pain-free execution,” and a judge allowed the execution to proceed.

.....................



A death row inmate who was executed by the state of Ohio on Thursday with an untried and untested combination of two medical drugs appeared to gasp and snort in a procedure that took an unusually long 25 minutes to kill him.

Dennis McGuire was pronounced dead at 10.53am at the Southern Ohio Correctional facility in Lucasville. His lawyers had warned ahead of the proceeding that the experimental combination of the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone might subject him to “air hunger”, an insufficient flow of air into the lungs causing the sensation of suffocation.

In court proceedings last week, an Ohio state prosecutor said bluntly: “You're not entitled to a pain-free execution,” and a judge allowed the execution to proceed.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/ohio-executes-inmate-untried-untested-lethal-injection-method

Let me check. Oh yeah, it’s right there in the Bill of Rights:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

In other words, not having to gag to death for 30 minutes during your execution is actually, as it turns out, ONE OF THE EXPLICIT FUCKING THINGS YOU ARE GUARANTEED IN THIS COUNTRY.


http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/17/say-what-man/

[pnwmom]

1. I don't support the death penalty. However, if they were going to do it,

why didn't they just shoot him up with an overdose of heroin?

[mike_c]

5. in essence, that is what they did....

It's not a particularly easy way to kill a healthy individual.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. Which is probably why they should bring back hanging, if they insist on capital punishment.

Or introduce the guillotine, or something. Measured-drop hanging, done right, is instantaneous and painless; the spine is severed at the fourth cervical vertebra. Beheading? Same thing. Lethal injection seems to be mostly about making execution seem like a medical procedure instead of what it is so people can feel better about supporting state-sanctioned killing.

[awoke_in_2003]

3. "making execution seem like a medical procedure "

bingo- it is seen as a medical procedure, not barbarism.

[jsr]

4. It's all about sanitizing the act

Nobody gets their clothes wrinkled or splattered on with blood.

[doc03]

6. Was the victim's death pain free? n/t

[NuclearDem]

7. No, but the guy wasn't claiming to be righteous or carrying out justice.

Maybe we just shouldn't sink to their level.

[Kaleva]

8. Timothy McVeigh thought his actions were righteous.

[NuclearDem]

9. Except we're not talking about McVeigh are we?

[Kaleva]

11. Just pointing out that some brutal killers believe such things when they commit the act or acts.

[NuclearDem]

13. Sure, I'm not denying that.

[doc03]

10. Sorry that is where I cease being liberal, I have

no sympathy for scum such as that.

[NuclearDem]

12. I don't really give a damn.

Hate the guy all you want, but me and a ton of other people (not to mention nearly the entirety of the Western world) don't want that blood on our hands.

[Kaleva]

14. I'm against the death penalty in principal because there is a chance some innocents...

have been executed and it's generally cheaper to put a person in prison for life then go thru the execution process but for many of those who are executed for brutal crimes and their guilt is beyond a shadow of a doubt, I feel no sympathy for them.

[doc03]

15. I agree, if the guy is caught in the act or proven beyond any doubt

to have committed the crime. He raped and stabed a pregnant women to death.

[Orrex]

16. That's a good policy, because only guilty people wind up on death row

Our esteemed system of justice treats everyone fairly, be they black or white, rich or poor, and you can be darn sure that no innocent person has ever been sent to death row.

Right?


Right?