Any one who updates a blog on a daily basis for a long time will probably find that their posts tend to have clusters that cover related topics, I expect that this happens because you tend to be focused on a particular issue over those days or even weeks. Thus I find myself writing again about the issue of capital punishment. The story that I quote below is interesting because what we are witnessing is the evolution of that particularity American method of executing criminals, the lethal injection of drugs to end the condemned man’s life.
The gurney on which convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad was put to death at the Greensville Correctional Centre this morning
Kenneth Biros will be the first death row inmate to be executed with a single dose of thiopental sodium
A single dose of thiopental sodium will be used to execute condemned inmate Kenneth Biros next month.
He will be the first prisoner executed using the drug instead of the combination of three drugs 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 yesterday.
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.
Broom is sentenced to die for raping and murdering a 14-year-old girl in 1984.
Under the three drug dose, the first drug knocks out an inmate, the second paralyzes him and the third stops his heart – a process that death penalty opponents argue is excruciatingly painful if the first drug doesn’t work.
The single-drug technique amounts to an overdose of anesthesia and has been used to euthanise pets, sedate surgery patients and in some parts of Europe has been used in assisted suicides.
I could never understand just why the three drug method was even necessary in the first place. Like many people who have companion animals I have had occasion to have one put down and the lethal injection used in veterinary practice has unfailingly worked very quickly and without causing any pain or suffering, the “green dream” has brought a merciful end to the suffering of millions of dogs and cats over the years so why it was not chosen for judicial lethal injection in the USA must be down to some misplaced squeamishness based on the idea that to use a veterinary medicine for this purpose implies that the condemned is some sort of animal. Well lets be real here the purpose of administering the drug is to kill someone so frankly I see no ethical problem at all in using something normally used in veterinary practice to do so.
Continuing on the same theme it pleases me to hear that the Washington sniper no longer draws breath after receiving his own lethal injection yesterday. Here is yet another case where there is no doubt of his guilt (he was apprehended in the specially modified car used in the shootings along with his accomplice) and the world is a better place without him.
In this day and age we are revolted by the thought of a brutal and painful end to the life of the most disgusting scumbag, even though in our heart of hearts we know that in many cases such suffering is actaully very much deserved. Making the killing of such scumbags as clinical and painless as possible does however demonstrate that the state and those charged to act in its name are morally superior to those that they send to hell and it spares the witnesses and the families of the victims from a display of suffering that may distract them from the “closure” that an execution of the guilty can bring.
Until next time Comrades
Filed under: Blogging, Ethical questions, Justice, Law, United States, obituary, the Law | Tagged: Greensville Correctional Centre, John Allen Muhammad, Kenneth Biros, Lethal injection, Romell Broom, thiopental sodium
Iain, that’s actually 2 consecutive posts about the death penalty. What’s this morbid fascination you’ve got with this ‘pet’ topic? Supporting capital punishment is one thing and plenty of people agree with you (a minority out here thankfully) but why go into the grizzly details of how it’s done?
Don’t worry Ray I won’t dwell on this topic forever but I find the way that such things develop over time fascinating, along with the almost ritualistic way that a capital sanction is carried out. My fascination is very much with justice here, and how a modern state is informed by a desire to remove cruelty from the equation by trying to make the execution of criminals as painless as possible.
But you are wrong to think that a majority of people oppose the death penalty, poll after poll shows that most people do to a greater or lesser extent support it is some circumstances. Most people are ambivalent on the question and their support is usually contigent upon how heinous the crime, and how sure their feel about the guilt of a killer.
Why do you think that the Pollies are so unwilling to put that question to the people?
They know that the answer would be something that they do not want to hear.
I find the way that such things develop over time fascinating, along with the almost ritualistic way that a capital sanction is carried out.
Why Iain? Quite frankly, I just find that fascination to be macabre.
As for capital punishment, I am certainly opposed to the hypocrisy of the State sanctioning the very same thing that they are punishing the criminal for – murder. However, if caught in the act (eg as Julian Knight was), I certainly have no objection to the police taking them down right there and then, as that is not a pre-meditated act but more about protecting the public and self defence.
It’s just a pity the officer who caught Knight didn’t pull the trigger when he had the opportunity. Then we wouldn’t have so many people calling for the reintroduction of the barbarous act of a planned execution.
Hey guys, why shouldn’t the act of lethal injection be described in full?
I have witnessed a few of my own pets humanely euthanized via pentobarbital and one cruelly and brutally murdered illegally in my presence via potassium chloride as the sole agent.
It is something you never want to witness nor would ever forget—believe me!
I’m glad that the courts and legislation has recognized this need to change protocol and not subject families and witnesses to unnecessary cruelty!
Pocket’s Story from NH
It depends on your purpose, Barbara. In your case you describe it because you’re outraged with what happened to your pet, and I can understand that.
I read your comment about ‘lefties’ pushing the ‘martyr’ thing as an argument against putting Islamists to death.
I heard an interesting rumour on the weekend from a friend who has a relative at fort Hood.
The rumour is that they are planning to find the soldier doctor who went on the recent shooting rampage to be insane. This is so he isn’t made into a martyr in the Islamist world.
I don’t like rumours but it will be interesting to see what happens ….
Sounds like more leftist apologia to me Craigy
How so iain?
Well Craigy
It boils down to how you define sanity doesn’t it?
I think allowing an insanity defence in a case like this is just a little too convenient especially for minions of the left who are too cowardly to call a spade a spade and lay any blame on any the religious motivations that appeared to be part of the equation here.
You and your pals seem terribly keen to suggest that anything but a devotion to a particular interpretation of Islam is at fault and the cause of the deaths of thirteen people. That is Leftist apologia because it ignores the most obvious percipient factor for fear of offending Muslims .
I’m not sure how you got that from my comment Iain…..??
As I said, it’s a rumour and is probably rubbish.
Who are my ‘Pals’ you refer to above??
My actual view on this (rather than your made up one) is that it’s most likely that he did this due to confused loyalties between his Muslim faith and his commitment to the US military.
I understand that problems of this type have been common in the US and many other military organisations when they have become involved in ideological wars that have failed in the long run.
In the US it is understandable that, just like in Vietnam, many soldiers are questioning why they are in Iraq and Afghanistan, given that the whole thing has turned into an unwinnable shit fight and was predicated by the commander in chief telling big lies to the entire international community.
I would be pissed off in their situation.
The murder of so many at Fort Hood is a tragedy. The US command has a lot to answer for in this.
Why, when they have done so much damage and told so many lies, lies that would obviously upset even sane non-Muslims, would the military commanders not be keeping a close watch on their own soldiers, especially Muslim ones?
I won’t hold my breath that those responsible for the mess in the US (and Middle East) will ever be held to account.
Perhaps the conspiracy theory will prove true and they will find him insane. It is a lot easier than admitting you got it wrong in the first place.
Still, I think his response, in breaking under the pressure, does show he is most likely sane and will now have to face the death penalty.