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TechnoratiAmnesty Lists Horrors of US Executions
The use of lethal injections in the US has led to at least nine bungled executions, including one in which the prisoner took 69 minutes to die and another in which the condemned man complained five times: "It don't work," a report by Amnesty International says today.
The report contains a catalogue of botched executions dating from 2000, when lethal injection was adopted by 37 of the 38 US states with the death penalty.
In an execution in Ohio in May last year it took technicians 22 minutes to find a suitable vein in which to inject the lethal combination of three drugs. When the condemned man, Joseph Clark, raised his head to complain that the process was not working, the technicians closed the curtains around his trolley and spent an additional 30 minutes looking for a suitable vein.
An autopsy discovered 19 puncture marks on Clark's corpse.
In a celebrated case in Florida in December last year the condemned man, Angel Nieves Dias, suffered chemical burns along his arms after technicians struggled to find a vein. Reports at the time described Diaz as grimacing in pain.
Such horrific instances have destroyed the main argument for lethal injection - that it offers a relatively painless and humane death, Amnesty says. "A number of executions in the USA have been botched and caused suffering, sometimes prolonged, to the victim."
Amnesty notes that Texas, which operates America's busiest execution chamber, has banned one of the chemicals involved for use in euthanising pets, because it does not effectively mask pain.
The report comes days after an unofficial halt to executions following a supreme court decision to review the lethal injection method. On Tuesday night the appeals court of Texas stayed the impending execution of a Honduran man pending the supreme court's decision.
© 2007 The Guardian
10 Comments so far
Show AllLet me preface my comment by saying that I'm against the death penalty.
That being said, how hard can it be to kill someone painlessly? Doctors put people to sleep all the time for surgery. Give the condemned general anesthesia to put them to sleep, follow up with helium or carbon monoxide to make sure they don't wake up.
ghandi, don't you know that you are not supposed to question anything about the bible? just turn off your brain, get on your knees, and get with the program. and don't forget to take a good long drink of the koolaid.
nickhart,
Change number three to read:
It's too expensive.
People are less concerned about the innocent than they are about their tax dollars. If we've learned nothing else about Americans in the last seven years, it ought to be this.
The death penalty doesn't make any damned sense. If murder is wrong, and a person is being punished for committing it, how can the murder of the convicted murderer be justified?
Another take:
When someone, a mass murderer say, has spent a decade or two alone in a tiny cell, he or she has a lot of time to think, and some ("Son of Sam" for example) get to a point at which they are able to articulate reasons for their monstrous and bizarre behavior. These people have a lot to teach society about why they do these terrible things. By killing them, we effectively destroy our most important information source. Not smart, and certainly not taking a long term view.
The practice of death penalty is nothing but DEATH OF FORGOVENESS AND REDEMPTION. Only a country that does not believe in forgiveness and redemption of a "criminal" practises death penalty.
In almost all cases it is the economically poor and those who belong to the minority communities who become VICTIMS of this inhuman and unciviliged practice.
USA has the distinction of ranking second (first is the US ally Saudi Arabia) in killing most number of "criminals" than any other country in the world.
My only question is: as a "Christian country" (with 53% claiming to be BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS, including the US president George Bush), how does belief in Jesus Christ correlate with the practice of death penalty?
@ezeflyer
I think you will find that in modern versions of the Bible used by the Christofascist 'churches' in the US today have altered that one to "Thou shalt not murder" in order to expedite, er, state ritual murder. Besides, whatever version you choose, there's plenty of God sanctioned killing going on, children, slaves, any 'non-chosen' people seem to be fair game as far as the God of Love is concerned.
The "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" justification is often used by state killing advocates, but that does raise an interesting point. In the event of the killing of an man or woman who is subsequently shown to have been innocent , who's eye and tooth is forfeit? The sentencing judge? The executioner? How about the Governor who signs the death warrant?
I'm surprised the chemical industry missed the slogan "better dying through chemistry". They could cite their past success in Bhopal.
Does "thou shalt not kill" hold any sway over the Xtian death penalty fanatics.
Five Reasons to Oppose the Death Penalty
1. The death penalty is racist.
2. The death penalty punishes the poor.
3. The death penalty condemns the innocent to die.
4. The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime.
5. The death penalty is "cruel and unusual punishment."
http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/