The editors of our beloved hometown rag are calling for a moratorium on executions until it can be decided whether getting executed hurts the poor murdering scumbag:
A mix of three drugs is used in lethal injection; an anesthetic, a paralyzing agent and then potassium chloride to trigger a fatal heart attack. If the anesthetic fails, the prisoner is paralyzed but subject to excruciating pain as potassium chloride burns vein linings on the way to the heart.
Texas loses nothing by delaying the use of lethal injection until the substantial doubts about its supposedly painless administration are thoroughly investigated and answered.
I completely agree. In fact, I’ll do them one better — Let’s get rid of lethal injections today. There are faster, better ways to do it:
- A properly done hanging
- Guillotine
- Dropping a piano on the guy’s head from a tower
Everybody out there in LSTLand, help the Chronicle! In the comments, leave your suggestion for a quick, painless method of dispatching bad guys.
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37 Responses to “Chronicle doesn’t like lethal injections”Search
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I do not know too many forms of Death that are painless. Personally I think everyone of the mudering scum should be exposed to not only excruciating pain but the terror that accompanies not knowing the exact moment or manner of death. Bring on Freddy Kruger as executioner. Have a good morning.
Maybe the Chron editors would think lethal injection is ok if it were called “assisted suicide” instead?
A shotgun barrel in the mouth. Works every time. Then, as a condition of parole, have parolees clean up the results.
You know I think we should do away with all of the different execution styles and go to a more uniform one. I personally am in favor of electric bleachers. We could hook more than just one scumbag up to it. We could execute a dozen at a time. All in favor of electric bleachers say “HELL YES”.
I don’t understand all this worry about pain at the time of death for these people.
#1 Who really cares; they are convicted murderers with an added reason to become a capital offense.
#2 How many people have come back from the dead and talked about how painful it was? Those who supposedly died and were brought back only tell how peaceful it was, even though people were pumping on their chest, putting holes in their body, etc.
#3 Once they are dead there is no memory of pain, so why care?
Some complainers state that they see contortions on the face, and that automatically means the person is in pain. That is not a valid assumption to make. It is highly possible that the person has already lost their brain, and the contortions are merely muscle movements, no reactions to pain.
I can’t imagine there would be any quality of life sitting on death row, and maybe if there is it needs to be removed. I believe I’d welcome death as opposed to the emotional and mental anguish associated with waiting to die. Death would be the easy part. I have to agree with flygal.
The comical doesnt like our current death penelty so let change it to stoning!
Who cares what they feel! They did not care when they killed whom ever they killed. Remember, One man’s pain is another man’s pleasure.
RideUponTheWind: I think your sentiment is pretty common. That said, it’s interesting to note that death row inmates fight the needle pretty hard. They go through every last-ditch appeal right up until the moment of execution.
Adee: how about “Post-Natal Abortion”?
We are way to concerned with how a murderer is executed then we are about how the murderer killed his or her victim. The victim is always forgotten in these cases. We forget how “cruel” they were treated. Maybe the murderer should have to share the same type of execution they used on their victims——-that sounds “fair and equal”!!!!!
The death row clowns apparently are too sensitive to pain…too bad they didn’t realize that of their victims…I am not sorry to say they deserve any form of execution that results in their demise! I favor a shooting squad of 12 (all need to be certified to carry a concealed weapon - good practice, but can’t miss).
#9
They wait 10-15 years on death roll, at taxpayers expense, to file appeal after appeal, nothing to lose. I guess the taxpayer also pays for the attorney filing the appeals, so it is a win win situation for them.
This is an easy one. Just give the inmate a choice between methods.
1.Lethal injection
2.Old Sparky
3.Hanging
4.Firing squad
5.24 hours with the entire armed victims family.
6.Non stop re-runs of the Rosey O’Donnell show till your eyes bleed.
Put them in an easily-sealed environment for the last day.
Introduce soporifics into their last meal.
When they naturally fall asleep, introduce sleep-maintainers in the atmosphere.
Introduce nerve toxin.
Clear atmopshere.
Remove trash, dispose.
Since we’ve learned that starvation and dehydration are peaceful and painless…..
I remember a sign a demonstrator carried at the execution of Karla Faye Tucker. It read,”Forget the needle, use a pickax”.
In case anyone here doesn’t know she was the murderer that pickaxed a man to death and said she experienced a climax each time she hit him with it.
#4 Spark and the Electric Bleachers…sounds like a late 60’s musical group. Really Spark….we need to consider their souls. Long ago I favored electric pews….give them a chance to get right with the Man before the switch is flipped. Then go with Left2Right’s suggestion about letting those getting out of prison clean up the mess. I don’t know if they would be mudering again, but they sure would be muttering!!
#11 Robert: I’m w/you!
What if the convicted killers be subject to the same method that they killed their victims, no matter what it was. I.E. If they shot their victims, shoot them (a slow, agonizing death is fine); if they tied their victims with chains and drag them down a road behind a car or truck until they were dead, do the same to them; if they pushed their victims off a 10 story building, put them on the ledge and roll the cameras; if they strangled their victims, have them strangled, if they raped, sodimized and slit the throat of their victims, let them suffer the same as they gave. And let the perps know that if they commit such crimes that can expect the same treatment and fast. A deterrent? Maybe in some cases. Maybe not in others. But after a few in kind executions that are visually publicised perhaps “some” of the bad guys and gals would have second thoughts before committing the act. We’ve tried rehab and coddling to these criminals, now let’s put some teeth in the punishment phase. The system tends to forget the victims! And, don’t keep them on death row for 15-30 years at $30,000 plus a year as a burden on the taxpayers! As for the criminals that aren’t on death row but are incarcerated in jails all over the country, show these “new justice” methods during their TV time so they’ll kmow exactly what will happen to them if they commit any capital offense. I can’t really say how I fell about this as I’d get deleted by the Squawkster.
One well placed 30.06 slug to the brain housing. This should be done out back of the court house within 30 minutes of the reading of the guilty verdict, in a public forum.
This is where I get accused of being the bleeding heart liberal. While I am in favor of the death penalty (and for more than just murder), I am also in favor of the long appeals process. Sometimes this process is the ONLY thing an innocent man has on his side. Besides that, I like the mental anguish of a perp getting close to his execution date 3 or 4 times, only to be yanked back. Mean, ain’t I?
I don’t understand the concern that the anesthetic may fail. Let them feel the potassium burn. Unless they have become right with the proper authority, that is not the last time they will feel the burn.
My God, I just realized we all sound more like muslims chopping off heads and other bodyparts than compassionate Christians. Ah, progress.
#23 Dugger
What’s your suggestion(s)?
Feeling a drug burn your veins is neither cruel nor unusual. Just ask a chemotherapy patient.
While it might be emotionally satisfying at first to advocate executing murderers by the same method they used on their victims, I don’t like the dehumanizing effect this would have on the executioner. For example, I cannot imagine bludgeoning to death my cousin’s murderer with a hammer (this is not to say he doesn’t deserve such a death). I would, however, personally insert the IV tube if no one else wanted to.
Malcom,
Really do not have any good answers. We are probably doing the right thing for this period of our history.
Dugger
We are talking about executing criminals not terrorists executing innocents. Big difference. And yes, we are are being compassionate - to the victim not the killer.
I like a modification of the piano idea.
Grossly large weight suspended 1/2 inch above the convicted’s head, which is resting on a quite steady platform below.
Trigger by pulling a lever somewhat like the guillotine did.
1/2 inch should translate to.. Let’s see.. d = 1/2 at^2, so 1/2 = 1/2 * 32*12 * t^2, so t = sqrt(1/(32*12)) or 51 ms fall time before the ear is contacted. Assuming a fall distance of a foot, and a weight grossly large enough to not be impeded by the presence of a human head, that’s still a total fall time of 1=1/2 * 32 * t^2 => t = 250 ms, or 1/4 of a second. In reality, it would be shorter because the fall distance wouldn’t be that large.
The convicted should not be able to feel and register pain in the time this process goes from start to finish.
With all regard to #11 and #16…
Okay, call me mean-spirited. I have this thought that executing a murderer should be done in the same manner as those he murdered. I mean, those folks, whom we can presume to have been innocent people, didn’t get much choice in how they died. And in too many cases, it wasn’t particularly painless. So, let’s condemn the convicted murderer to the same form of death. If it wasn’t “cruel and unusual” for the victim, then it clearly may be cruel, but not “unusual” for the perpetrator. If you shot the victim in the back of the head; well the good news is that it’ll be quick, but the bad news is that you won’t know how long it is before the trigger is pulled. If you set a bomb, the good news is that you know that a bomb is going to kill you, but the bad news is that we aren’t going to tell you when the bomb will explode. Today? Tomorrow? One day next week? Ten minutes after we close the door? Just how much notice did you give the victims….?
Okay, so I’m a bit of a radical.
– Ken
#29 Ken
Not really- See my #19.
#10 fxdriver: “Post-Natal Abortion” has an certain ring to it. The pro-abortion and anti-death penalty gang seem to like euphemisms…
Ken, when a dog is viscious and bites somebody, you don’t bite the dog before you put it down. You just put it to sleep. Human beings deserve the same dignity. We don’t want to become what we seek to destroy, and thereby lose our own humanity. The death penalty should be used to protect society from evil and viscious people. But we need it for other crimes. If you hurt somebody so bad they would have died without medical attention (subjective of course, but isn’t everything?), then you killed them. It was the physician or emergency personnel who saved them. That should be a death penalty. If you forcibly rape somebody (Child or adult, male or female), that should be a death penalty (and in this case, there better be conclusive evidence it was with great force). If you con some old person out of their life savings or cheat them on home repairs, that should be a death penalty. On drugs, I’m not sure where I stand. In most cases, drug deaths are self inflicted wounds. Sometimes I’m tempted to take the Libertarian approach on this. However, drug dealers target children. If you catch a drug dealer in the act, they should be made to ingest their own product until everything they had on them is gone. I’m sure there are a few others that I can think of, or others can.
I’d also like to see a society where we all go armed. If you go into a bar, you give up your sidearm unless you can prove when you leave you are sober. It would likely cut down on street crime a great deal. Our society is going to have to fall flat on its face before we recover a sufficient amount of sense to enforce common sense in our laws and the way we live our lives. That means liberals would cease to exist. They would perish of their own stupidity….a just reward for screwing up our society as bad as they did. We’ll suffer enough because we allowed it!
crushing of balls slowly+gasoline+matches=1 curled up flaming scumbag ala charcol
The Chronicle was OK with St.Lukes euthanizning Andrea Clark but it is cruel to do lethal injections for the death penalty.
One must make these judgements on a case by case basis.
The Chronicle has exhibited poor judgement in this case.
The Chronicle exhibited poor judgement about Andrea Clark.
The Chronicle is a very consistant newspaper, depend on it
I am no Christian, so here is one…I am in favor a scalping, skining and salting or time alone with the victim’s family. Part of our society’s problem is resposibility. I feel a family is honor bound to find the perp first and take care of it. If the person is known to be guilty by the family and the courts fail in their duties (I refuse to use the word justice. Each time an attorney uses it I want to puke) it is the responsibility of the kin to get that ‘fixed’. I am a strong believer in vengence. It is an excellent deterant for violent crime and provides that closure psychologists are so fond of.
#3
Have Dick Cheney take them quail hunting
Sorry I am late to the conversation. I think that we need to inflict as much pain as possible, as do many of my predecessors in this thread.
With that in mind, I suggest death by reading the Chronicle editorial page.