Posted on 05/02/2014 11:31:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
News reports this week were filled with lamentations from death penalty opponents about the messy and unnecessarily painful execution of Oklahoma's Clayton Lockett. As Andrew Cohen wrote in The Atlantic, Oklahoma corrections officials "were using an untested mix of lethal drugs, never previously used in that dosage combination, obtained through secret means, which precluded the possibility of oversight from attorneys or medical officials on the quality of the drugs. They were warned by medical experts, and asked by defense attorneys, to open up the process to review -- by the courts, by doctors, by some members of the public. Yet they refused."
Missing from that report -- and most others -- was the reason states are using new drug mixes obtained through unconventional means: Since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky's three-drug lethal injection protocol as constitutional in 2008, death penalty opponents have used every trick in the book to make the drugs disappear.
Of course, before the big bench's 7-2 ruling, lawyers for death row inmates had argued that the three-drug protocol violated convicts' constitutional protection against "cruel and unusual punishment." The remote possibility -- a 0.001 percent chance -- that an inmate might suffer unduly prompted federal Judge Jeremy Fogel to halt California's three-drug executions in 2006; despite the Supreme Court ruling, there hasn't been one since.
After the big bench affirmed the three-drug protocol, activists went after suppliers. The European Union threatened to ban the export of sodium thiopental to the United States. European producers stopped making it. U.S. manufacturer Hospira also stopped making the drug.
That's when states started experimenting and scrounging for "untested" drugs.
When an investigation of Lockett's gruesome end is complete, it may find that the drug cocktail had little to do with Lockett's unintended pain. The problem could have been intravenous needles that were damaged or poorly inserted.
Kent Scheidegger of the pro-death-penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation blogged Wednesday that because lethal injection requires the involvement of medical professionals, it "was a mistake from the beginning. We should have kept the gas chamber and merely used a different gas. Carbon monoxide, for example, is painless." He's right.
I should note that Lockett had it easier than Stephanie Neiman, the innocent 19-year-old victim whom he and his friends beat and bound with duct tape in 1999. Lockett shot her twice before he ordered an accomplice to bury her alive in a shallow grave.
White House spokesman Jay Carney called the Oklahoma execution inhuman. He did not mention the Obama administration's role in pressuring states to surrender drugs found to be constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2011, the Obama Department of Justice actually seized Georgia's supply of sodium thiopental because the drug, among other problems, did not have FDA approval. Really.
"If the White House is upset," Scheidegger wondered, "why don't they do something about the supply problem? Everyone knows that pentobarbital, the single-drug method, works just fine." Maybe President Obama should sign an executive order.
Yup!
I believe I read that he refused to eat before his execution. I wonder if that means he also refused liquids. When the body is dehydrated the vein kind of collapses and it is very hard to insert needles in the veins or even to draw blood. .
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1540584/posts
Twas the night before execution and all through San Quentin, the Crips were protesting, and liberals were ventin’.
The cyanide was hung by the chamber with care, in hopes that the reaper soon would be there.
The inmates were nestled all snug in their bed ; except for Old Tookie, who soon would be dead.
And me with my beer mug, dressed warm in my flannel, had curled up to watch it, on the Fox News Channel.
I set up my TIVO to record the news station, and thoroughly loved the momentous occasion.
It seemed lady justice had gotten her way, and that there would be one less savage today.
When outside the jail there arose such a clatter, the cameras had turned to see what was the matter.
When what to my civilized eyes did appear, but a lineup of actors, all liberal...half queer.
The misguided freaks drew some curious looks, as they proclaimed his innocence; while clutching his books.
The tears then flew from Susan Sarandon’s eyes, as she nominated him again for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The actors were tethered to an ACLU sleigh, all towing the line of urban decay.
On Asner, on Penn, on liberal cop-haters, On Sharpton, on Jesse and other race-baiters.
Then at 3:01 all curled up like a beetle, Tookie cried like a bitch, as they gave him the needle.
When up from the actors there arose such a cry, they had failed in their mission, and Tookie DID DIE !!
I heard Bill O’Reilly say, as I turned out my light, Merry Christmas to all ... there was justice tonight !!
So does...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_bolt_pistol
He's DEAD; ain't he!
Wasn’t that the point? But that’s the lame stream media for you.
No way, that would be much to easy for them.
The FDA requires drugs to be safe and effective. In this case, I’d say one out of two ain’t bad.
Don’t care about easy. Don’t care about hard. Just want to get the job done. Preferably without giving them 10-20 more years of life then their victims. If people are too squeamish for guillotines and gallows, then inert gas can do the trick.
“But, a good many liberals responsible for the torture of aborted babies.”
Dontcha know an unviable tissue mass can’t suffer? Hmmm?
Ya know?
/S/
Who’s responsible?
From L. Neil Smith, attributed to the wisdom of the Cheyenne:
“A thief is killed in the night. Whose hand is on the bow?”
There are plenty of safe, painless ways used for medical purposes. The drug companies refuse to allow their drugs to be used for executions.
So, they have to go with whatever they can cobble together from the companies who will sell to them, and it’s not very optimal.
Personally, while I think it’s rank cowardice on the part of the drug companies, I’m also very ok with the criminals not having it as easy as a person being anesthetized for surgery, or a beloved pet on that final vet visit.
Actually, there are a number of ways of doing that.
I will not go into details, but I have been trained on techniques to euthanize animals. There are many ways to accomplish this without the animal feeling a thing.
The difficulty, I think, is that these methods require physical contact with the animal being put down. Psychologically, it is difficult enough when the animal is a rodent; when the animal looks human, the level of psychological difficulty increases several-fold. I think that almost anyone involved in the process would have difficulty afterwards.
Although... abortionists could be recruited to do the deed, I suppose. They're used to killing people.
Cheyenne Bodie's.
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