13 Comments

1. msc545 says:

   Friday, Aug 1, 2014 at

   Surprise – we don’t torture people to death in this country, no matter what they have done. We are better than that.

   Reply
2. Bill says:

   Friday, Aug 1, 2014 at

   Off your meds again? Seriously, the death penalty is one thing, slow death, torture and even suggesting drano is not what a civilized society does regardless of the crime. Perhaps instead of just owning a Bible, you should open it and read it. Nice society that you envision for your grandchildren. What a phoney!

   Reply
3. Bill says:

   Friday, Aug 1, 2014 at

   Seriously, the death penalty is one thing, slow death, torture and even suggesting drano is not what a civilized society does regardless of the crime. Perhaps instead of just owning a Bible, you should open it and read it. Nice society that you envision for your grandchildren. What a phoney!

   Reply
4. Dorene Tapp says:

   Friday, Aug 1, 2014 at

   Since California never executes anyone, why are we wasting tax dollars keeping prisoners on death row? Give them life without parole, put them in general prison population and make them work to earn their keep. Store pampering these people!!!

   Reply
   • msc545 says:

     Sunday, Aug 3, 2014 at

     A very good idea. Let’s abolish the death penalty in California, and do exactly what you have suggested. It will be better for all concerned.

     Reply
5. Joyce U Thomas says:

   Friday, Aug 1, 2014 at

   …plus look at how many came off death row due to DNA evidence or tampering.

   Reply
6. Betty Arenson says:

   Friday, Aug 1, 2014 at

   Please do not misunderstand the commentary. Yes, I am pro-capitol punishment BUT I am not personally for torturing under the circumstances by any means. That is beyond pointless and a waste of effort and time. My point is that in reading the details of the three cases, those present as witnesses are not in agreement as to what really happened after the drugs were administered and there is a big dispute as to whether or not the convicts were cognizant and aware; did they actually suffer, is the question many have. OF course their attorneys and families say ‘yes’, others say ‘no’. My point in the Drano comment, not my words, was that the victim’s family is in pain and made their feelings known. I am not suggesting that convicted felons be poisoned; I was merely reciting that the victims’ families have a right to be heard with their thoughts too. They are darned sure their dead loved ones suffered before their last breaths. I think they deserve a voice. If life-without-parole actually happened, more people would probably be for it. Next week’s article will cover that.

   Reply
7. msc545 says:

   Sunday, Aug 3, 2014 at

   Guess what – life without parole happens all the time, and it is for real. I’ve worked in a prison and I’ve seen it up close, and it is probably the worst punishment ever devised – far worse than the death penalty. In fact, so much worse that many people with this sentence or even just a really long one try to commit suicide and sometimes succeed. I know this because I was one of the people that had to treat them for injuries when they didn’t succeed.

   Now then – is that cruel enough to satisfy you and your need for vengeance ? As an aside, studies have been done of the families of victims after an execution. They do NOT feel better, and in many cases feel worse.

   Reply
8. msc545 says:

   Sunday, Aug 3, 2014 at

   I nearly forgot – nobody is buying your attempt to backpedal regarding the Drano comment: you picked that particular comment out of many that were made to illustrate your points, and then tried to discount your responsibility for choosing to repeat it in the first place. I have no doubt that somebody said it, but it clearly had absolutely *nothing* to do with “victims being heard” – in criminal cases, they are always offered the opportunity to be heard, so they don’t need your help with this.

   There is also no dispute about how long it took these men to die; the events were witnessed and reported by *professional* journalists and were even admitted to by the prison officials, so you have no wiggle room here nor does anyone else.

   I agree that the crimes they committed were terrible, but that does not give anyone the right to torture them to death and that is what happened in these cases. Your attempts to justify what happened to them by reciting the details of their crimes is pitiful – the two things cannot be legally related to each other (“cruel and unusual punishment”).

   I think the gentleman that suggested you actually read your Bible made a good point. I would further suggest that you read the US Constitution as well – particularly the Bill of Rights.

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9. Betty Arenson says:

   Sunday, Aug 3, 2014 at

   No need to buy or not buy any idea of “back-peddling” because I’m not offering any. Again, I said I personally am pro-capitol punishment and NOT for torturing anyone in the death chamber. Period.
   With regard to the “professional journalists” and their assessments of Wood’s death, I will point out that another witness to the event, Stephanie Grisham, Arizona attorney general’s office, reports her observance as “no gasping” (but) “snoring” “He just laid there. It was quite peaceful”. Thus my comment about there being disputed accounts from the witnesses.
   As for the Drano comment (I also quoted that the family member asked for “a bullet”–apparently referencing the firing-squad days), there was no menu of comments to choose from–I did NOT just select it, it was THE ONLY one that three L.A. Times reporters wrote about as coming from the from the dead victim’s family; the proof is the last paragraph of July 24th article on the event. No “wiggle room” necessary.

   Reply
10. Dudkey Sharp says:

    Monday, Aug 11, 2014 at

    Betty:

    Thank you.

    Clayton Lockett: The Case for Execution
    Dudley Sharp

    Make the effort to think of your daughters, granddaughters and sisters, or any loved ones, as these victims and their family members were forced to do.

    During a home invasion and kidnapping:

    A, completely, innocent Stephanie Neiman, 19, was shot twice with a shotgun. The criminals made Stephanie watch as they dug her grave. Stephanie was placed, alive, in that grave, moaning and crying, and buried, alive (1).

    Summer Hair was anally and vaginally raped, twice, on separate occasions and different locations and forced to perform oral sex. She lived (1).

    Lockett gave a full confession, with no remorse.

    Lockett was an ongoing, continuing threat while on death row (2), just as he was before these crimes.

    In the full context of Lockett’s crimes and his death, there is no reason for anyone to use them as a reason to abandoned the death penalty and every reason to reflect on why some crimes deserve the death penalty.

    Remember Stephanie and Summer.

    Predictably, death penalty opponents are using Lockett as their newest poster murderer to fight death penalty support.

    Anti death penalty legislators in the New Hampshire House of Representatives even used Lockett as the foundation for a re-vote on death penalty repeal.

    Fortunately, with that re-vote, the House had 7 fewer votes for repeal and 13 more votes for retention. Thank you. The Senate refused to reconsider and the death penalty remains.

    Lockett’s crimes call for more death penalty support.

    LOCKETT”S BOTCHED EXECUTION

    Death penalty opponents, in all states, are using Lockett’s botched execution, in Oklahoma, to call for an end to execution, as is New Hampshire.

    Odd. Oklahoma has a history of successful executions, which is, somehow, being forgotten.

    Nationally, much less than 1% of lethal injections have any problems (cut downs are not problems, but solutions).

    Could Lockett have exhibited those noises and movements while unconscious? Of course. Could he have been conscious? Of course.

    The IV went through the vein.

    At this point, no one even knows, for sure, if Lockett suffered. Depending upon how much of the drugs were administered IV (if any) and how much, intra muscular, we cannot know if he suffered or if he was conscious. Hopefully, the autopsy and expected thorugh review can tell us.

    But, we do know what happened to Stephanie and Summer. Don’t forget them.

    With executions, the proper protocol is to have a second IV line, ready to go. Had that been done in
    Lockett’s case, there would have been a brief delay, then the second IV would have been used and no one would have even noticed.

    So, let’s wait until the full report and stop any blind speculation.

    We know what happened with all the blind speculation in McGuire’s execution (3) in Ohio. Let’s not duplicate that nonsense with Lockett.

    1) “Clayton Lockett (states): ‘IN REALITY I AM PROBABLY THE MOST DANGEROUS TYPE OF CRIMINAL’ . . . ‘CAUSE I’M AN ASSASIN – POINT BLANK’ ”
    http://www.ok.gov/oag/documents/Lockett%20Clemency%20brf.pdf

    2) “Friends of victim have zero sympathy for Clayton Lockett”, New York Daily News, May 2, 2014,
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/friends-victim-zero-sympathy-clayton-lockett-inmate-botched-okla-execution-article-1.1777463

    3) The (Imagined) Horror of Dennis McGuire’s Execution
    http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-imagined-horror-of-dennis-mcguires.html

    Reply
11. Dudkey Sharp says:

    Monday, Aug 11, 2014 at

    No “Botched” Execution – Arizona (or Ohio)
    Dudley Sharp

    “In 1989, (Wood) hunted down and shot to death his former girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz.” (1)

    “Debra Dietz’s sister, Jeanne Brown, who was at the execution, said, ‘Everybody here said (the execution) was excruciating. You don’t know what excruciating is. Seeing your dad lying there in a pool of blood, seeing your sister lying there in a pool of blood, that’s excruciating.’ ” (1)

    “No one who witnessed the execution has said Wood ever woke up. It simply took a long time for him to die.” (1)

    “(Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan) said IV lines in the inmate’s arms were “perfectly placed” and insisted that Wood felt no pain. ” (2)

    He is correct (3), there could have been no pain, only sedation, sleep, coma and death (with apnea, shortness of breath, weezing, other noises, etc. common).

    “Anesthesiology experts say they’re not surprised that the combination of drugs took so long to kill Wood.” (2)

    “This doesn’t actually sound like a botched execution. This actually sounds like a typical scenario if you used that drug combination,” said Karen Sibert, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Sibert was speaking on behalf of the California Society of Anesthesiologists.” (2)

    “Dr. Zivot said that midazolam acts ‘like a key in a lock,’ attaching to a receptor in the body and causing sedation. Once the receptor is saturated, he said, ‘it doesn’t matter if you give the person 500 additional doses or five million doses. It won’t have any more effect.’ ” (4)

    “The documents showed that Mr. Ryan personally directed the execution team to use the additional (14) doses. In his statement, Mr. Ryan said the doses ensured that ‘(Wood) remained deeply sedated throughout the process, and did not endure pain.” ” (4).

    For an equally peaceful death, but a quicker one, use pentobarbital or nitrogen gas.

    “ ‘(Wood’s) sedation level was continually monitored and verified by the IV team,’ Mr. Ryan said. The intravenous team included a doctor, he said.” (4)

    Wood’s breathing, weezing and/or gasping is a product of respiratory distress, as expected.

    That is easy for anyone to determine/

    1) Interview neutral, competent anesthesiologists.
    2) Review the pharmacological characteristics of the drugs and their overdosing symptoms.

    Very basic. Very easy, just as with the Ohio execution of Dennis McGuire (5), another case where folks jumped to the wrong conclusions.

    DRUG MANUFACTURERS ETHICS

    For alleged ethical reasons, companies have denied execution jurisdictions the use of the preferred drugs sodium thiopental and pancuronium bromide in the execution of guilty murderers, even though those same companies still approve them for euthanasia for innocent humans and animals.

    1) Execution of Joseph Rudolph Wood was NOT botched, EJ Montini, columnist, azcentral.com, 7/24/2014

    2) “Transcript shows concerns during Arizona execution”, Associated Press, Washington Post, July 25, 2014

    3) Autopsy doctor finds nothing out of the ordinary in inmate’s execution, Gary Grado Arizona Capital Times, July 25, 2014.

    4) “Executed Arizona Inmate Got 15 Times Standard Dose, Lawyers Say”, Fernanda Santos, New York Times, AUG. 1, 2014

    5) The (Imagined) Horror of Dennis McGuire’s Execution
    http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-imagined-horror-of-dennis-mcguires.html

    Reply
12. Brian Baker says:

    Wednesday, Aug 13, 2014 at

    You want a very quick, virtually painless death that’s pretty hard to “botch”?

    The guillotine is just the ticket.

    Reply

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