COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio's death chamber is set to resume executions next month using a single drug that has been used in the U.S. to euthanize pets but never to put condemned prisoners to death.They still have to inject that stuff into a vein, so that doesn't get them around why they couldn't execute Biros.
Barring legal challenges, condemned inmate Kenneth Biros is scheduled Dec. 8 to be the first prisoner in the nation to be executed using a single dose of the drug thiopental sodium instead of the combination of three drugs that the state had been using.
A federal judge had temporarily halted Biros' execution because of the botched execution of Romell Broom in September, which prompted the new execution method announced Friday. Executioners couldn't find a suitable vein on Broom to administer the lethal drugs, and he walked away from the execution chamber after the governor issued a temporary stay
Why don't they just have the executioner press a shotgun to the executionee's head and kill him? Executing someone is pretty close to barbarism, so why are we trying to dress it up? And, to be honest, I don't much care for the idea that condemned murderers get the same consideration (and death drug) that we give to our beloved pets who are suffering.
The death penalty is the state-sanctioned killing of *people*. We should stop trying to prettify it up. And we should make it mandatory that the governor of any state with the death penalty has to witness the first execution carried out in his or her first term, not remotely, not in the witness booth behind glass, but in the same room.
Better than having them watch, have them do it. It would be easy to set up an array of rifles to be fired remotely or to trip the guillotine from another room, so a governor could do it without splattering his wingtips. Hanging requires some skill and knowledge (rope length, customer weight, etc), which might be a lost art if Saddams execution is any indicator, but releasing the trap is easy. Potential problem, some governors might like it.
ReplyDelete"Potential problem, some governors might like it." Man, hadn't even considered that.
ReplyDeleteEB- interesting position. I think you and I agree that in principal, there are times when the death penalty is warranted, though in practice, I personally would support banning it. But I think you're right in that we have made it too sanitary and too distant for most of us to grasp what a profound decision it is, to put a person to death. Deserved or not.
A book on nuclear weapons I read in the late 70's suggested that the entire leadership of nuclear nations should be required to witness an above ground detonation of one of those weapons. At the time, and since, I've felt like that wasn't a bad idea. Montag's comment gives me pause. There are such people. (cough, shrub, cough)
Shotgun is such a messy way to execute someone; let's show some compassion for those whose job is to clean up afterward.
ReplyDeleteLockwood passed along an interesting suggestion, and I'll take it to the next level:
"the entire leadership of nuclear nations should be required to witness an above ground detonation of one of those weapons" . . . from ground zero.
Lockwood I beg to differ with you (cough, shrub, cough). That boy is too big a coward to do it in person. Now Dickwahd would be more liable to that flaw, but you know he would have Scooter in the room with him, for deniability.
ReplyDeleteMontag, I want them to get their wingtips dirty. If it was a hanging, the governor doesn't have to plan the drop, just trip the trap. If Dubya liked doing it, maybe he would have stayed in Texas.
ReplyDeleteLockwood, John Chancellor on the air described witnessing an above-ground nuclear test and suggested that the world leaders be made to wintess one very so often.