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Lawyers Tried to Stop Botched Execution After 1 Hour
Newser ^ | 7/24/14 | Rob Quinn

Posted on 07/24/2014 8:40:54 AM PDT by Impala64ssa

"He has been gasping for more than an hour," lawyers said in an emergency appeal to halt the botched execution of Arizona inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood yesterday. "He is still alive." As the hour mark passed, Wood's lawyers filed an appeal to a district court and even called Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, the New York Times reports. Kennedy declined to halt the execution, while the district court didn't respond until after Wood had died, almost two hours into a process that usually takes around 10 minutes. Gov. Jan Brewer has ordered an investigation into the execution of the 55-year-old who murdered his estranged girlfriend and her father in 1989.

State officials say Wood was comatose and didn't suffer during the execution. "He was snoring," says a spokeswoman for the Arizona attorney general. "There was zero gasping or snorting, and that's just the truth. He was asleep." Members of the press who witnessed the execution, however, say they heard a lot of gasping: "He gulped like a fish on land," writes Michael Kiefer at the Arizona Republic. "The movement was like a piston: The mouth opened, the chest rose, the stomach convulsed. And when the doctor came in to check on his consciousness and turned on the microphone to announce that Wood was still sedated, we could hear the sound he was making: a snoring, sucking, similar to when a swimming-pool filter starts taking in air."

(Excerpt) Read more at newser.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Arizona
KEYWORDS: capitolpunishment; lethalinjection
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To: Bubba_Leroy

Easy way to solve the problem, feed them to starving lions.

It’s a win win, lions get feed and we save on buying meat.


41 posted on 07/24/2014 9:35:25 AM PDT by chiefqc
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To: Impala64ssa

I think we’ve found a solution to the problem...

“The free bolt stunner is used for the emergency, in-the-field euthanasia of large farm-animals that cannot be restrained. It differs from a true captive bolt gun in that the projectile is not retractable; it is similar in operation to a powder-actuated nail gun or conventional firearm. Capable of firing only when pressed firmly against a surface (typically the animal’s forehead), the device fires a small projectile through the animal’s skull. The veterinarian can then either leave the animal to die from the projectile wound, or administer lethal drugs.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captive_bolt_pistol

Problem solved!


42 posted on 07/24/2014 9:35:30 AM PDT by Beagle8U (Unions are an Affirmative Action program for Slackers! .)
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To: Impala64ssa
Lethal injection simply takes too long and can produce these effects. Albert Pierpont,Britain's famous hangman, believed that the execution should go as quickly as possible and any delay was cruel. He prided himself on being able to manacle the condemned, set the hood and the noose and spring the trap in less than 30 seconds. Surely there are better means of dispatching these murderers such as nitrogen asphyxiation.
43 posted on 07/24/2014 9:35:33 AM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: traderrob6

It’s because the left cares about multiple murderers more than anybody or anything in the universe except Islam...therefore, the drugs have to be so “gentle” that they’re less effective, depending on the person and his drug tolerance. I’d say in his case, the latter was probably pretty high.


44 posted on 07/24/2014 9:37:50 AM PDT by livius
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To: BenLurkin

I am more of a repent by suicide type of guy. For the rest of the convicts life, he will live alone in a windowless room where sticking out of the wall is a button and right above that a hole with where the bullet will enter the brain. The ony way the bullet will fire is the convict must stand on a floor plate, place his eye on a retina scan and once positioned activates the device with finger print.

It is only at that point where the convict can push the button and the bullet will enter the brain, killing the convict. the body is removed, the cell is self cleaning and is ready for the next convict.


45 posted on 07/24/2014 9:39:45 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (GM is dead and Al Queada is alive.)
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To: Impala64ssa
...55-year-old who murdered his estranged girlfriend and her father in 1989.

25 years ago !!

46 posted on 07/24/2014 9:41:19 AM PDT by Vinnie
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To: traderrob6

They didn’t use enough of the drug. Arizona uses only 50mg of midazolam hydrochloride followed up with hydromorphone. Here in Florida, we use 500mg of midazolam followed up with a cocktail of other drugs. The 500mg is about 40x the the normal dosage used in theraputic medicine and 250mg would render someone unconscious in about 4-5 minutes according to a court expert (Chavez et al v. Palmer). The second drug used in Florida eliminates any involuntary twitching of muscle fibers. It is the third drug in the drug cocktail, potassium chloride that actually stops the heart.

Plus we have another full set on hand for use if necessary.


47 posted on 07/24/2014 9:47:14 AM PDT by Politico2isBack
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To: SpinnerWebb

Holy Cripe!


48 posted on 07/24/2014 9:53:57 AM PDT by mcshot (..."And this too shall pass.")
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To: traderrob6

The drug companies refuse to sell the proper drugs for execution. If they would, it would be just as easy for a human to be put down as it is for a suffering animal.


49 posted on 07/24/2014 10:02:45 AM PDT by Fire_on_High (RIP City of Heroes and Paragon Studios, victim of the Obamaconomy.)
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To: livius

“It’s because the left cares about multiple murderers more than anybody or anything in the universe except Islam”

Aren’t you being a little redundant here?


50 posted on 07/24/2014 10:03:25 AM PDT by fredhead (Join the Navy and see the world.....77% of which is covered in water.)
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To: Impala64ssa

Boo friggin hoo. When I got my colonoscopy the doctor put something over my nose and told me to count backwards from 5. It was curtains before I got to 3. I can’t imagine that it’s any different for these maggots other than the fact that they don’t ever wake up.


51 posted on 07/24/2014 10:19:17 AM PDT by KevinB (Barack Obama: Our first black, gay, Kenyan, Muslim president!)
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To: Impala64ssa

That California federal judge was absolutely right: states should immediately move to firing squads as a means of execution.

Lethal injection is just stupid, as its purpose is not so much to execute as to make said execution aesthetically pleasant to witness.

Electrocution and the gas chamber are also both expensive and haphazard. The guillotine and hanging are passe.

Bullets, on the other hand, are inexpensive and ubiquitous, require no great skill or training, are very reliable, and death occurs very quickly and certainly.

It just makes sense.


52 posted on 07/24/2014 10:25:25 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: Fire_on_High
The drug companies refuse to sell the proper drugs for execution. If they would, it would be just as easy for a human to be put down as it is for a suffering animal.

Yep. Most of them have been acquired by European firms (or, like Mylan, moved their HQ to Europe for tax purposes) and the EU has pressured them to not provide execution drugs.

Ultimately some court will find the replacement drugs to be "cruel and unusual" and capital punishment will end as a practical matter. We will not have the stomach to go back to firing squads and gas chambers IMO.


53 posted on 07/24/2014 10:35:17 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: traderrob6
“Why do they have such a hard time? I used to work at a vets and we put hundreds of dogs to sleep with nary a problem ever.”

Dogs are rarely boozehounds or drug addicts. Putting such people to sleep can be unpredictable. Even if they have been sober for many years

54 posted on 07/24/2014 10:36:45 AM PDT by varyouga
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To: Bubba_Leroy

seriously.

when done correctly its painless and clean and requires no unusual medical apparatus or involvement - just an MD to prounounce.


55 posted on 07/24/2014 10:47:23 AM PDT by RitchieAprile
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To: Impala64ssa

The evil murder is dead, so the execution was not botched.

As for “cruel and unusual punishment”, that does not require that an execution be painless. When my doctor set my broken leg, it was shockingly, excruciatingly painful, but there was nothing cruel about it. The pain was incidental to putting the bones in the right spot, not the goal. Similarly, when a vicious murderer experiences momentary discomfort or even pain during execution, “owie, that needle hurts,” there is nothing unconstitutional about the process so long as the procedure is designed to cause death rather than to inflict pain.


56 posted on 07/24/2014 11:06:35 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Mr Rogers

Egad! There was a police officer ON THE SCENE, who WITNESSED the crime, and this guy was able to kill two people???????? Fire that officer, she’s obviously worthless.


57 posted on 07/24/2014 11:10:30 AM PDT by knittnmom (Save the earth! It's the only planet with chocolate!)
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To: fredhead

Too true.


58 posted on 07/24/2014 11:56:23 AM PDT by livius
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To: knittnmom

She was probably afraid some FReeper was going to come forward and say “eeevil cops want to kill innocent homicidal loonies.” Or afraid of a lawsuit, which is a real problem for cops now.

If you’ve ever seen some of the anti-cop posters here, you’ll know what I’m talking about.


59 posted on 07/24/2014 11:58:14 AM PDT by livius
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To: Vinnie
25 years ago !!

That is what I find most disturbing about this story. Not that it took 2 hours to execute him, but that it took 25 years.

60 posted on 07/24/2014 12:26:37 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation Continues)
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