Ohio execution stayed while state weighs allowing organ donation

KFGO ^ | 11/13/13 | Kim Palmer

[Libloather]

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio Governor John Kasich on Wednesday stayed the execution of convicted killer Ronald Phillips to assess whether Phillips's non-vital organs or tissues can be donated to his mother or possibly others.

Phillips, 40, was scheduled to be executed Thursday for the 1993 murder of 3-year-old Sheila Marie Evans. But Kasich granted a stay until July 2 to allow medical experts to assess whether Phillips's non-vital organs or tissues can be donated to his mother or others.

[Libloather]

Phillips's mother needs a kidney, according to his attorney Timothy Sweeney.

Take it out before inserting the needle.

[Menehune56]

Solution: use rope, lead, or electricity instead.

[Jewbacca]

Not that I intend to die at the hands of the State for crimes, I would ask to be hung or somehow killed so all my organs could be donated.

I mean, at least do SOMETHING useful.

[Jewbacca]

I would think electricity would ruin the organs.

[PapaNew]

Nothing about what the condemned prisoner has to say about it.

The death penalty is barbarous. Even if it "served a useful purpose" which it does not, it is wrong on so many levels for the state to be allowed to take another life deliberately and willfully after that person is confined and not an imminent danger to another.

Of course, the state & the police have the right and duty to protect its citizens from the threat of great bodily harm by using deadly force. But after arrest and containment, no such right or duty exists, IMO. The only duty is to further protect its citizens by keeping dangerous criminals confined if not varifiably rehabilitated.

Of course, the prison system could do a lot more to rehabilitate the prisoners and make them productive while they are confined. We are living in the dark ages in our penal system concepts IMO.

[lee martell]

I would question the general health and viability of anyone’s body organs if that person has been incarcerated for the last 20 years. The prison diet and the stress on that life style would likely be hard on the liver, pancreas and bile ducts. There may be undiagnosed cancers, patiently waiting to metastasize. Prison doctors can only be so diligent. A resident of death row would not be my first choice.

[Mamzelle]

No, no, and…no. Bad business, bad idea. Too much like China.

[Slings and Arrows]

Am I the only one thinking of Larry Niven’s Known Space series?

[Ouderkirk]

The death penalty is not about prevention..it’s about punishment. Punishment for certain crimes, so heinous that you have forfeited your right to continue.

Not knowing anything about the case at hand, it certainly sounds as though this is one of those persons who have forfeited his right to continue. My only reservation is that the certainty of the states’ case against him. If he’s the guy, and the prosecutor can prove without question that he did it....time for him to die.

[bgill]

Except when the government decides to commute the death penalty to life meaning those inmates who have severed the time for life are relased back out onto the streets and end up killing again. Naw, like that would ever happen, right? But it did.

[Scrambler Bob]

Is this an execution lasting more than 4 hours?

[informavoracious]

He BEAT and anally RAPED a three year old girl over a period of time. On the day she died, she had over 120 fresh bruises on her body and evidence of anal penile penetration. She had intestines that turned gangrenous after the rape and beating. She died from those massive injuries. Her "mommy" turned a blind eye. He was 19 at the time and confessed. He claimed he did not want to go to jail because he feared getting "blanked" in the butt - even though that was EXACTLY what HE did to a THREE YEAR OLD BABY!!!

Now...you were saying WHAT about "rehabilitation"? Sorry. Some people just need killin'. He's already lived 20 years too long. Put him down.

[GadareneDemoniac]

Is this a current news item? It is now mid-November, and they need until July to figure this out? JULY? The SOB has been in jail how long and they need seven and a half more months to “evaluate” this?

What a bunch of Bull.

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

A lot of people on both sides of the death penalty overemphasise deterrence as a factor for or against execution. It is undeniable however, that the death penalty has a flawless 0% recidivism rate, which is more than can be said for any other punishment ever given out by any judge in any legal system in the world.

Here in Britain, there have been many instances of murderers released on parole from life sentences who have gone on to kill again. Even in America, where life often means life without possibility for parole, some lifers have gone on to murder prison guards and other inmates, and the most they can do is send them to the hole for a few months. The death penalty is if nothing else, the most practical way of removing a dangerous offender from society permanently.

[billorites]

Porn, kittens and organ sales.

That's why God built us the world wide web.

[mom of young patriots]

I agree. Though the death penalty seems barbaric, ask, if you only could, the victim about the mercy they experienced at the hands of the murderer. We should never transfer compassion for the absent one who will not draw breath again to the criminal who is still alive and present.

If a person takes an innocent life in a truly cruel and calculated fashion and the guilt can be proven beyond a shadow of doubt in a court of law then, through that monstrous act, they’ve forfeited their own right to live. The punishment fits the crime. All that is left is for society to have the courage to carry out the sentence.

Kenneth McDuff is a perfect example of how the prison system failed and compassion for the criminal cost the lives of future victims. Several young women would be alive today if McDuff had died in the electric chair when he was scheduled to instead of receiving 2 stays of execution and eventually being released. The State’s lack of courage is directly responsible for those broken young lives.

[Hamilcar_Barca]

Rather than execute him, just sign him up for ObamaCare and he'll be gone in no time!

[PapaNew]

Problems include:

1) Makes you and I judges of who should live and who should die.

2) It bolsters a culture of vengeance and death.

3) And what if five years later (as sometimes happens) new evidence shows up that someone else was the guilty party? Too late - can't fix it.

4) "Punishment" is a useless exercise. It doesn't solve anything, it doesn't fix anything and it absolutely heals nothing or no one. Vengeance is clearly not a healer. Only forgiveness heals.

Does that mean the guy should go free? As long as he remains dangerous, no - it is government's job to protect society from threats to life & liberty from both outside or within the country.

Dare I put out the Shakespearean quote? It's worth repeating here I think:

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I [The quality of mercy is not strained] by William Shakespeare

[PapaNew]

Right, but that doesn’t justify killing them. It justifies fixing a broken penal system.

[PapaNew]

But for God's grace go you and I. We dare not allow ourselves to think of what horrors we are capable of. But we easily condemn those who for reasons we don't know have gone down the slippery slope we ourselves are also capable of sliding down.

Does that justify his actions? No, but there is One who has taken all of our and his condemnation. What we and he get in return is grace and mercy.

Does that mean he should go free? Not if he's dangerous to society becasue protecting the citizens is the government's #1 job.