२ मे, २००६
"It's not working. It's not working."
Said the condemned man, sitting up, after the lethal chemicals were pumping into his veins. A curtain was drawn, things were readjusted, the curtain reopened, and Joseph Lewis Clark was dispatched. Before the execution he apologized, and said, "Today my life is being taken because of drugs. If you live by the sword you die by the sword."
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Capital punishment is so stupid on so many levels. It's amazing that it is supported in a country where a majority of its citizens claim to be Christian.
I have no philosphical problem with the death penalty; some people (in the language of the Old West) just "need killin'". The problem is that justice isn't perfect, and an unacceptable number of people have been proven innocent by DNA weeks or days before their scheduled executions. Thankfully, we have not (yet) discovered that an innocent man has been put to death - although it has no doubt happened.
But "life" imprisonment sometimes isn't. And modern medical care often allows prisoners longer lives than they would otherwise have. The solution is that "life" prisoners should be welded into their cells, and told "This door will open only after you are dead, or found innocent." Nothing should go through the cell door except food and water.
"Rehabilitation" is for people who will someday be released.
i think we've had the 'blood on our hands' discussion before. not that we shouldn't have it again, mind you...
but i'd prefer to have the 'lethal injection is cruel and unusual' debate (though we've had that as well). more evidence in favor of injection being removed/ammended is always welcome.
there are lots of people that will be no great loss to me when they die, but that doesn't mean i want to kill them
look i already broke my own suggestion
Dig Marklar the self-identified liberal. This links for you, and it is Ann Althouse approved!
My real question Ann, is what effect will "It's not working. It's not working" have on the current death by injection case in front of the Supreme Court?
Marburg, which ad-hominem are you referring to? "self-identified liberal?"
I do beg of you, please, please Brer Marburg, whatever you do, don't take away our ability to chat!
Apropos of "It's not working...." and the Innocence Project is this report in the Times: Faulty Testimony Sent 2 to Death Row, Panel Finds
Actual working lawyer (defense lawyer) Jeralyn Merritt summarizes it as: Death penalty proponents like to say that it has never been established that an innocent person has been executed in the United States. That may no longer be the case. Arson experts have found that Texas executed a man whose crime may not have been a crime at all. The fire for which he was executed appears to have been an accidental one. Junk science and inadequately trained experts are the culprit.
Marghlar said: "I'd say the best compromise is to execute only in the very worst cases (thus, getting the most added value out of the execution, and adding deterrence where we need it most)."
Couldn't agree more.
Dave:
"i think we've had the 'blood on our hands' discussion before . . . i'd prefer to have the 'lethal injection is cruel and unusual' debate. more evidence in favor of injection being removed/ammended is always welcome."
But those are very different discussions. Whether the death penalty in general, lethal injection more specifically, or any one given protocol used for lethal injection offends the cruel and unusual punishments clause is a very different debate to the moral debate about whether and how capital punishment should be administered.
Well, when we lock up these murderers the way they locked up his mother and sister (unjustly in their case obviously) -- the door was rusted shut and the only way the guard knew they were alive was because the food disappeared -- then we can do away with it.
Ironic parody! Brilliant Sir! Well played!
SippicanCottage should be here any minute now.
I'm a Christian and I'm against the death penalty.
OTOH I think we spend way too much on prisoners who are never going to leave prison. It would be interesting to see what could be done in designing a low-maintenence prison without any real facilities, where the inmates are fed pre-prepared meals totalling between 1500 and 2000 calories a day. Put it in the middle of nowhere with large amounts of empty space around it.
Well, I'm not sure what to think of those who oppose the death penalty on grounds of Christian charity, and then indulge in sadistic fantasies of what should be done to condemned inmates instead.
My only objection to the death penalty is that it results from the operation of the police and courts, which are staffed by the same kind of governmental f-ups who run the DMV, IRS, etc. Since that makes verdicts about as reliable as the Post Office, I'm as reluctant to weld inmates into cells etc. as to kill them.
Joe said..."On humane methods of execution, I think quick is the way to go - firing squad, probably..."
From Norman Mailer's "The Executioner's Song," describing the autopsy of Gary Gilmore, exectued by firing squad:
He skinned Gilmore right up over his shoulders like taking a shirt half off, and with a saw cut right up the breastbone to the throat, and removed the breastplate and set it in a big, open sink with running water. Then, he took out what was left of Gilmore's heart. Jerry Scott couldn't believe what he saw. The thing was pulverized. Not even half left. Jerry didn't recognize it as the heart. Had to ask the doctor. "Excuse me," he said, "is that it?" The doctor said, "Yup."
"Well, he didn't feel anything, did he?" asked Jerry Scott. The doctor said, "No." Jerry had been looking at the bullet pattern earlier, and there had been four neat little holes you could have covered with a water glass, all within a half inch of each other. The doctors had been careful to take quite a few pictures. They numbered every hole with a Magic Marker, and turned Gary over to photograph where each bullet exited from his back. Looking at those marks, Jerry could see the guys on the firing squad hadn't been shaky at all. You could tell they'd all squeezed off a good shot.
Of course, Jerry was always thinking about getting shot himself. It could happen any time on duty. He had to keep wondering what it would be like. Now, looking at the heart, he repeated, "He didn't feel anything, did he?" The doctor said, "No, nothing." Jerry said, "Well, did he move around after he was shot?" The doctor said, "Yes, about two minutes." "Was that just nerves?" Jerry asked. The fellow said, "Yes," and added, "He was dead, but we had to officially wait until he quit moving. That was about two minutes later."
Smilin' Jack - so what is sadistic about my proposal? You think we ought to have prisons with all the bennies of a community college and a 4-star restaurant to boot?
Sheesh.
You'd think I'd recommended all the fixtures be wired to 50v to shock the inmates when touched or something.
Is it fair to ask the prison employee to carry that burden?
A normal prison employee? No, that sounds like it would be beyond the scope of his employment. But an executioner? Yes. I don't know whether we still have a specialised office of executioner, but I recall reading (on an airplane flight a year or two ago) about the retirement of a man whose job was "executioner," (or hangman or something like that), and in that case, it is perfectly fair. The office is also apparently quite popular -- I also recall reading in that same article that people applied for the office in significant numbers. These are not, perhaps, the kind of people we want implementing executions. Not the right sort, not quite respectable. But nevertheless, there are many people for whom it is no real burden at all.
Execution has been a regular feature of all civilised societies I am aware of, at least up until the very recent past, and while for the past century or two, the better sort have generally regarded it as a messy, unpleasant business -- all the worse because hanging apparently gives the hanged man an erection or something, which is embarassing -- they have not balked. "Danny Deever," and all. There are some exceptions -- Churchill seems to have been tickled by the thought of sticking Nazis in the electric chair -- but this is generally the way it seems to have been seen: an unpleasant duty.
Now, looking at the heart, he repeated, "He didn't feel anything, did he?" The doctor said, "No, nothing."
And just how would the doctor know that? Seems to me this would feel like a massive heart attack, which anyone who has survived one can tell you is far from painless.
I wouldn't want to die by firing squad unless they were aiming for the head...and were good shots.
Smilin' Jack: I always assumed Mailer intended for us to be very skeptical of what the doctor said.
Well I can't resist..
I can't imagine getting shot by a firing squad feels any worse than what happens to that baby coming down the birth canal. Maybe the IP should take up some of those cases.
geoduck; jumped the shark? I'm not the one concerned about pain and what is cruel and unusual in regards to condemed murderers. Based on what someone opined, I offered my opinion. It's America, I'm not telling you what to think or feel or what the law should be. You could at last tell me why I jumped the shark since its "official" and one can assume you are the judge of such things.
Marghlar said...
"Shot to the back of the head is really, really messy though."
That's true, and while I would agree that the goal should be to minimize suffering for the person being executed (a side benefit of the shot to the head, of course, is organ harvesting, but that's a different question), the problem becomes that the messier it is, the easier it is for the anti death penalty lobby to say "look how awful this barbarous practise looks!" Not for nothing does one occaisionally see stuff from pro-life organizations depicting the recognizably human results of an abortion: because it works. It provokes a visceral reaction, even (perhaps especially) in those who like to kid themelves that this is all just a question of reproductive choice. Likewise, if we started executing people in a way that was genuinely and undoubtedly humane, but none-the-less rather messy, I suspect you would start seeing pictures of executed inmates with their faces missing being sent out by anti-death penalty groups.
Geoduck,
I was actually referring to intact dilation and extraction. Its just always been ironic that some one gets emotionally upset that a convicted murderer might suffer a moment or two of pain or discomfort before execution. Not even considering what pain and discomfort might be associated with years in jail preceeding the execution, or in lieu of it.
I was too imprecise, not wanting to totally go off topic, but I can understand your interpretation.
Happens at home all the time.
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