Botched Execution Raises ACLU's Ire

[Mephisto]

Somehow I fail to feel any sympathy for a man who killed a fellow inmate over a chess game argument by slamming his head into the floor and stomping on his throat. He then took the time to cut a piece of his prison uniform to strangle the man. The article doesn't state why Newton was in prison in the first place:

Ohio lethal injection takes 2 hours, 10 tries

POSTED: 4:52 p.m. EDT, May 25, 2007

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Death penalty opponents called on the state to halt executions after prison staff struggled to find suitable veins on a condemned man's arm to deliver the lethal chemicals.

The execution team stuck Christopher Newton at least 10 times with needles Thursday to insert the shunts where the chemicals are injected.

He died at 11:53 a.m., nearly two hours after the scheduled start of his execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. The process typically takes about 20 minutes.

"What is clear from today's botched execution is that the state doesn't know how to execute people without torturing them to death," American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio attorney Carrie Davis said Thursday.

"Having one botched execution is too many; that Ohio has now had two botched executions in as many years is intolerable."

Officials said the delay was due to Newton's size -- he weighed 265 pounds. In May 2006, the execution of Joseph Lewis Clark was delayed about 90 minutes because the team could not find a suitable vein. He was a longtime intravenous drug user.

A group of Ohio inmates is suing over the state's injection method, saying it is unconstitutionally cruel, and Thursday's delay helps show that the state is unable to smoothly complete executions, said Greg Meyers, chief counsel for the Public Defender's Office.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/05/25/ohio.execution.ap/index.html

Two things I want to know; why don't they just switch to either a firing squad or hanging for fat guys who were long-time IV drug users, and

did they swab the injection site with alcohol first?

 

[chulbert]

There is some risk of decapitation when hanging overweight individuals, which could be considered cruel and unusual in the United States.

 

[MelBrooksfan]

Two things I want to know; why don't they just switch to either a firing squad or hanging for fat guys who were long-time IV drug users, and

Lethal injection's the only current legal form of capital punishment in Ohio. Also, there's that thing about fat guys having their heads yanked clean off by hangings.

did they swab the injection site with alcohol first?

Evidently, that's more to protect the folks performing the execution than the condemned.

 

[hgc]

Two things I want to know; why don't they just switch to either a firing squad or hanging for fat guys who were long-time IV drug users,

I'm opposed to judicial homocide in general, but as long as they're doing it, why not firing squad for everyone? Is there a more reliable way to kill people quickly and painlessly.

Has anyone been done in that way in the U.S. since Gary Gilmore?

 

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

It would seem to me that using a firearm would be fairly humane way to execute the comdemned, and would require little expertise to administer. Is there any reason why executions are not usually carried out this way in the United States? Is it the trauma factor for the executioner?

 

[HarryKeogh]

did they swab the injection site with alcohol first?

Alcohol causes blood vessels to rise to the surface – facilitating the insertion of the needle. Obviously, not enough in this guy's case.

Also, there is a slight chance of the prisoner’s fate being delayed or overturned right up to the final moment, placing importance on the sterility of the procedure.

 

[Tailgater]

If a nurse not finding a vein is torture, I'm suing every hospital I've ever been too. Hell, I'm suing that cruel nurse that tortured my 1 year old a few months ago when they had trouble drawing blood. Not to mention the fact the guy stuck himself thousands of times before. Unreal.

 

[ponderingturtle]

If a nurse not finding a vein is torture, I'm suing every hospital I've ever been too. Hell, I'm suing that cruel nurse that tortured my 1 year old a few months ago when they had trouble drawing blood. Not to mention the fact the guy stuck himself thousands of times before. Unreal.

This is what I thought. I guess when ever anyone has trouble finding a vein it is torture and they should be charged with such. This will do wonderful things to our health care system.

 

[Steve]

From the article (bolding mine):

"What is clear from today's botched execution is that the state doesn't know how to execute people without torturing them to death," American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio attorney Carrie Davis said Thursday.

I suggest that Carrie Davis is guilty of a little exaggeration.
For unknown reasons medical staff always seem to find it difficult to find a vein on me to start an IV (I have never used IV street drugs). It is not uncommon, even for a routine procedure such as a colonoscopy, for the nurses to make multiple attempts before they find a suitable vein. When my wife was first nursing and needed to be certified to start IV's I used to let her practice on me - we figured that if she could routinely start one on me then the routine ones at work would be a breeze. Being poked with a needle a few times is not a big deal. I did not feel that I was being "tortured to death" and I definitely did not die from these attempts.

 

[timhau]

There is some risk of decapitation when hanging overweight individuals, which could be considered cruel and unusual in the United States.

Unusual, yes, but how is it cruel?

 

[Beerina]

There is some risk of decapitation when hanging overweight individuals, which could be considered cruel and unusual in the United States.

Quite frankly, if I were going to be hung, I'd prefer that my head be yanked off. Better than dangling there for 30 to 60 seconds dying if your neck doesn't snap.

Up until recently I thought there were 6 methods in use in the US:

• Lethal injection
• Hanging
• Firing squad (5 bullets, 6 guns?)
• Gas chamber
• Electric chair
• Maybe I'm confusing it with 6 ways to reach first base
  • Hit
  • Walk
  • Error
  • Fielder's choice infield fly rule
  • And the often forgotten dropped 3rd strike
  • I guess that's only five here, too. I know I'm missing at least one in one of these two lists. Wait! Hit by pitch!

 

[Darth Rotor]

"What is clear from today's botched execution is that the state doesn't know how to execute people without torturing them to death," American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio attorney Carrie Davis said Thursday.

"Having one botched execution is too many; that Ohio has now had two botched executions in as many years is intolerable."

1. I find this use of the word "torture" careless, having had military corpsmen and medics give me multiple jabs, frequently, when trying, and missing, veins during blood samples for the annual AIDS tests. A liar working for the ACLU, too bad, it does no credit to the ACLU to have such tripe spoken in their name.

2. "Intolerable." More hyperbole. Zero defects from the ACLU?

Granted, this is a mess, but intolerable?

Intolerable would be the capital crimes those felons committed to get the death penalty in the first place. That fits "intolerable."

DR

 

[EvilSmurf]

Quite frankly, if I were going to be hung, I'd prefer that my head be yanked off. Better than dangling there for 30 to 60 seconds dying if your neck doesn't snap.

Up until recently I thought there were 6 methods in use in the US:

• Lethal injection
• Hanging
• Firing squad (5 bullets, 6 guns?)
• Gas chamber
• Electric chair
• Maybe I'm confusing it with 6 ways to reach first base
  • Hit
  • Walk
  • Error
  • Fielder's choice infield fly rule
  • And the often forgotten dropped 3rd strike
  • I guess that's only five here, too. I know I'm missing at least one in one of these two lists. Wait! Hit by pitch!

Hmm...what about being a Pinch Runner?

 

[BPSCG]

• Maybe I'm confusing it with 6 ways to reach first base
  • Hit
  • Walk
  • Error
  • Fielder's choice infield fly rule
  • And the often forgotten dropped 3rd strike
  • I guess that's only five here, too. I know I'm missing at least one in one of these two lists. Wait! Hit by pitch!

• Balk?
• Force play?
• Tell her she looks really pretty?

 

[shecky]

I always thought guillotine would be a rather humane way to go. Seems better to have the head sliced off than yanked off, to me, at least.

 

[ARubberChickenWithAPulley]

1. I find this use of the word "torture" careless, having had military corpsmen and medics give me multiple jabs, frequently, when trying, and missing, veins during blood samples for the annual AIDS tests. A liar working for the ACLU, too bad, it does no credit to the ACLU to have such tripe spoken in their name.

Heh, I was just about to say, anyone who thinks being jabbed with a needle 10 times is cruel and unusual punishment has probably not spent much time in the military.

Which reminds me: I have to get another anthrax shot next week. Youch.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Heh, I was just about to say, anyone who thinks being jabbed with a needle 10 times is cruel and unusual punishment has probably not spent much time in the military.

Which reminds me: I have to get another anthrax shot next week. Youch.

I am so glad to be done with them, I got sick each time I had a booster. I almost went and got one last October, just to remenisce, but no, bad idea.

DR

 

[BPSCG]

How quickly we forget. Everyone remember Terri Schiavo? Court order allowed her husband to have her starved to death? Nobody claimed it was cruel and unusual; in fact, there were doctors claiming that starving to death wasn't painful.

Therefore, "I sentence you to be starved until you are dead." Who could have a problem with that?

 

[Hutch]

I always thought guillotine would be a rather humane way to go. Seems better to have the head sliced off than yanked off, to me, at least.

I agree, it's quick, efficient, and you can process what, 10-20 prisoners an hour with no problem...

Unfortunately,the more liberal folks don't want anybody put to death, and having your head chopped off is about as dead as you get...and the conservatives would moan that it was a French Invention and that we shouldn't be borrowing anything from the Frogs...

..Unless they can contract with Halliburtion to produce state of the art guillotines for $350,000 apiece...

 

[TragicMonkey]

How quickly we forget. Everyone remember Terri Schiavo? Court order allowed her husband to have her starved to death? Nobody claimed it was cruel and unusual; in fact, there were doctors claiming that starving to death wasn't painful.

Therefore, "I sentence you to be starved until you are dead." Who could have a problem with that?

If one doesn't have the awareness of pain, does the pain exist?