Botched execution likely painful, doctors say (we're supposed to feel bad)

AP ^ | ET Dec 16, 2006 | AP

[Hacksaw]

Some speculate this week’s lethal injection caused slow, excruciating death

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Death penalty foes have warned for years of the possibility that an inmate being executed by lethal injection could remain conscious, experiencing severe pain as he slowly dies. That day may have arrived. Angel Nieves Diaz, a career criminal executed for killing a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, was given a rare second dose of deadly chemicals as he took more than twice the usual time to succumb. Needles that were supposed to inject drugs into the 55-year-old man’s veins were instead pushed all the way through the blood vessels into surrounding soft tissue. A medical examiner said he had chemical burns on both arms.

“It really sounds like he was tortured to death,” said Jonathan Groner, associate professor of surgery at the Ohio State Medical School, a surgeon who opposes the death penalty and writes frequently about lethal injection.

[umgud]

The constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. it does not guarantee a painless execution.

[fish hawk]

I like that method.Draining the blood out of the body from the hole in the top of the torso.

[Unicorn]

Sounds allright to me.

[alloysteel]

Just in case there really IS no afterlife, then the passage of a criminal in the throes of pain and unable to communicate that pain, would be just one last lesson his consciousness would know. And if there is an afterlife, the first impact of descent to the underworld would seem almost benign.

Darn, no do-overs.

[fish hawk]

Your solution is coming in the future. Read Rev. 20:4. And can you think of anyone who would carry it out more enthusiastically than Radical Islam?

[loungitude]

according to reports from the French revolution, sometimes the person was conscious after his head was chopped off!
..............
I am about ten years short of a medical degree, but it seems that not much brain activity would occur with zero blood pressure, and zero circulation. Would someone qualified please clarify?
I also would welcome the return of the firing squad.

[mkjessup]

Oh by all means, let's avoid torturing these poor prisoners on their execution day, back to the basics folks:

A nice tall tree, and a short piece o' rope!

It worked for our ancestors, it'll work for us!

"25 Minutes to Go!"- the late Johnny Cash

Well they're building a gallows outside my cell, and I've got 25 minutes to go
And the whole town's waitin' just to hear me yell - I've got 24 minutes to go
Well they gave me some beans for my last meal, with 23 minutes to go
But nobody asked me how I feel - I got 22 minutes to go

Well I sent for the governor and the whole dern bunch, with 21 minutes to go
And I sent for the mayor but: he's out to lunch! I got 20 more minutes to go
Then the sheriff said boy I'm gonna watch you die, with 19 minutes to go
So I laughed in his face and I spit in his eye! With 18 minutes to go!

Now hear comes the preacher for to save my soul, with 13 minutes to go
And he's talking bout' burnin' but I'm so COLD! I got 12 more minutes to go
Now they're testin' the trap and it chills my spine, 11 more minutes to go
And the trap and the rope? Ohhhhh they work just fine! 10 more minutes to go

Well I'm waitin' on the pardon that'll set me free, with 9 more minutes to go
But this ain't the movies, so forget about me! I got 8 more minutes to go
With my feet on the trap and my head in the noose, 5 more minutes to go
Won't somebody come and cut me loose?!?!? I got 4 more minutes to go

I can see the mountains, I can see the skies - with 3 more minutes to go
And it's too dern pretty for a man that don't wanna die! I got 2 more minutes to go
I can see the buzzards, I can hear the crows, ONE more minute to go
And now I'm swingin' and here I go-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!

[Citizen Tom Paine]

This to me is an example of an event that the press has wasted ink over and we are wasting bandwidth over. Think of the poor victim that he killed who is now cold in the ground. The murderer brought whatever he received on himself. If there is a just God, even now he may be receiving his due reward.

[Clintonfatigued]

Leftists will to compare it to the Nazi gas chambers.

[al baby]

how about target practice for the troops

[mosquewatch.com]

How about, shooting people in the back of the head at soccer stadiums ? Taliban loved that too. (devil's advocate here)

[Freedom4US]

I always figured the standard for a "quick and speedy" trial involved the fellow who attempted to shoot President-elect Roosevelt. He ended up shooting Chicago Mayor Tony Cermak in Miami, iirc.

Anyway, Mayor Cermak died about half-way through the trial, and they switched mid-stream to a murder trial. The guy was caught, arraigned, tried and executed not in 27 years, but roughtly 27 DAYS.

[Jo Nuvark]

[... I don't know if the Doc is an abortion supporter but he should be glad his mother wasn't...]

Just wanted to see that statement again.

Jo

[Caipirabob]

I wonder if he had enough time to regret what he did?

[the invisib1e hand]

Headlines to come?

All abortions painful.

[fabriclady]

"It's not like the person he killed suffered any torture"

I think the laws in every state needs to be changed.
Change the death chamber to give a slow painful death. Long enough to make them think of how their victims must have suffered.
And yes, I do have a big heart.

[Vaquero]

the pain inflicted on perp is no where near what the victim felt back then and the family of the victim has been putting up with all these many years...

of course if we must be civilized:

1 ) someone in a posting yesterday made the point, why not take the heroin from drug busts and give him a nice hot fix......no pain there I suppose..just a buzz...right into hell.

2 ) or what I initially thought to do, was to give a quadruple shot right off the bat...why fool around. how much can the chemical cost?

[DCPatriot]

The government and society's punishment is to TAKE YOUR LIFE.

You all read like a bunch of village peasants with torches...storming Frankenstein's laboratory.

I know I should ignore these threads...but after reading your remarks...I felt compelled to call you on it.

Dude...he's forfeiting his life.

Don't make me use graphics on you. ;^)

[R. Scott]

Guess we could always go back to public executions on the gallows.

[IronJack]

The media whores are trying to keep this story alive longer than the puke that got executed. The Bleeding Hearts Club will no doubt whine a boo-hoo chorus, but most average Americans aren't going to lose much sleep over the "pain" experienced by another piece of criminal flotsam while he was being put to death.

Resonance Factor: 2.