botched death-row execution took over 3 hours

[butters]

this thread isn't about 'did he deserve to die?', it's about the incompetence or lying of the people in charge of the execution. The autopsy showed Dunham's execution took far longer than witnesses were allowed to see (including a lawyer), and when witnesses were allowed to view the body, they were shocked by the massive amounts of needle marks on his body. A society is judged upon its treatment of the young, the old, the incarcerated.

Reporter Elizabeth Bruenig said her first impression upon witnessing the body was that James’ ‘hands and wrists had been burst by needles, in every place one can bend or flex’.

She also claimed that ‘the carnage farther up one arm told a radically different tale than the narrative offered by the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC).’

Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center:
‘If the department does not know whether a prisoner is conscious or unconscious at the time of the execution, then they are incompetent to carry an execution out. If the department does know but will not say, then they cannot be trusted.’

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...pc=U531&cvid=3becbbe8b17448c49338d47874fa9c61

 

[knownuthin]

good

 

[JohnEngelman]

good

What matters is that they killed him.

 

[butters]

What matters is that they killed him.

so if a dog killed a person and had to be put down, you'd be good with it going through approximately 3.5 hours of botched attempts, probably causing extreme duress, to get there?

if a death sentence is to be executed it should be swiftly and humanely done

 

[LupusDei]

if a death sentence is to be executed it should be swiftly and humanely done

Indeed.

And that's probably by guillotine.

Even hanging can go badly wrong, and firing squad is no guarantee either, people have survived dozens of bullets. Lethal injection sounds great on paper, but individual freak differences in reaction to chemicals can make wonders. Electric chair has led to nothing but wide area burns in more than one occasion too.

Long ago I was all for death sentence, it seemed so simple. Then I learned, and got convinced it is unfortunately unusable in practice, simply for justice never to possibly be error proof. However, I have allowed a backslide, now my opinion is that death sentence should remain on the books, but with practical, but not certain, moratorium on execution. Like, there's about half a percent chance for every year spent on death row that it randomly might go through and be executed. But yes, in the procedure itself there shouldn't be uncertainty. If it's not intentionally torturous it shouldn't be.

 

[ishtat]

Even hanging can go badly wrong

Not if it is done with a large washer on the rope instead of those ridiculous knots you see in films. Albert Pierrepoint perfected it, together with his table of 'drop' lengths /weights. He hanged over 435 people without ever screwing one up. His total included over 200 German war criminals and about 7 American servicemen (6 black+ 1 native American)

 

[butters]

put them under, using some anaesthetic, then inject a lethal dose

 

[LukSkyFokker]

 

[oggbashan]

The last person executed in the Tower of London (in WW2 a German spy) was shot by a firing squad. Every .303 bullet passed through his heart and destroyed the back of the chair he was sitting on.

 

[Rightguide]

No one is perfect.

 

[butters]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...1&cvid=7c4b20cb85cd480c9e210779fe89deea&ei=33

Alabama to be the first to use nitrogen asphyxia to execute an inmate—untested, considered inhumane in its use, and potentially dangerous to others in the room of the one being executed, one who already survived a horrifically botched previous attempt.

On 25 January, Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) officials will strap Kenneth Eugene Smith to a gurney in Holman Correctional Facility and pump his lungs full of pure nitrogen.

Having survived one horribly botched execution, Smith faces being put to death by a wholly untested method that has been decried as inhumane by death penalty experts and deemed unfit even for killing most mammals.

Dr. Hood, an anti-death penalty activist and someone who has attended multiple executions in multiple states, has been asked to sign a waiver if he is to stand any closer than 3 feet to the inmate as the execution proceeds. He's describing the state of Alabama as standing out for 'its incompetence and bloodlust', with its history of botched kills.

“I can tell you without a doubt that the state of Alabama is the most unprofessional, unprepared buffoonery that I have ever seen.

“The execution chamber looks like a medical procedure in other states. In Alabama, it looks like a torture chamber.”

Although legal in 3 states, that's just 'on the books' since it's never been used as a method in any U.S states to date nor anywhere else as far as the report is aware.. The prisoner filed to request this method, since they have to choose an option if rejecting another.

While it is used to kill poultry in the US, the American Veterinary Medical Association has rejected its use on almost all mammals and says it is “distressing for some species.”

i don't care how terrible the crimes are that this man committed—he has been judged guilty and ordered to lose his life. That is the punishment. ANY death penalty (and i don't hold with that in almost every case) should be carried out humanely; it's not a sideshow, it's not intended to be an opportunity to inflict terrible pain and distress. I'm sure if there are loved ones of his victims they wish him as ill as they can (only human in most cases), but the legal and medical bodies involved must be above that. Often those calling themselves the most christian are eager for the most revenge rather than see the god they acclaim pass judgement in their stead. No, not always... there are good people out there, too, who wish the convicted dead but do not condone the use of savagery in order to achieve that.