Lethal Obejection-Is Lethal Injection Too Macabre?

The evening of June 7, 2000, should have been another seamless exhibition of modern execution science. A killer named Bennie Demps was scheduled to be the third Floridian to die by lethal injection, that smooth cocktail of sedatives, paralytics and heart-stopping potassium chloride that was adopted to replace the macabre malfunctions of Old Sparky, an electric chair that had served the state since 1924.

Unlike Florida's first two executions by lethal injection, however, there was nothing smooth about Demps' death that evening. Prison personnel struggled behind closed doors for 33 min. to properly insert the long tubes into Demps' veins. When the curtains finally opened, as they are meant to so witnesses can observe the final moments, Demps, strapped to a gurney, addressed the group in a trembling voice. "They butchered me back there. I was in a lot of pain. They cut me in the groin. They cut me in the leg," he said before the drugs were pumped into his veins. "This is not an execution, it is murder."

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear in April the case of the most recent Florida prisoner facing the needle and take a rare look at whether inmates can challenge lethal injection. That case, coupled with the surprise withdrawal last week of two court- appointed anesthesiologists who were going to assist in the execution of California's Michael Morales, has unleashed a wave of new questions about the future of lethal injection, the method of preference in 37 of 38 states with the death penalty. Is this seemingly sanitized death really cruel and unusual punishment? Should medical doctors, those do-no-harm healers bound by the Hippocratic oath, refuse to assist in executions, even though their absence might raise the risk that the procedure will be botched?

In all, five inmates have had their executions put on hold since late January because of doubts surrounding lethal injection. Critics of the method point to 24 cases since 1985 that have gone awry. It took 39 min. of failed attempts to put a tube into Georgia's Jose High before a doctor took over and found a suitable vein. Oklahoma's Scott Dawn Carpenter had drug-induced seizures on the gurney. And even when everything seemed to go right, opponents say, inadequate doses of barbiturates-- the first drug in the cocktail--may have exposed prisoners to excruciating pain, while the paralytic drugs left them unable to cry out or even move as they lay dying.

Supporters of the death penalty say the rash of new objections is not really about the minutiae of dosage or correct catheterization. Rather, it's all part of the continuing effort to chip away at support for capital punishment. Indeed, some anti--death- penalty activists hope that if state courts order closer supervision of lethal injection, instead of remote dosing through tubes that run outside the death chamber, the heavier reality of capital punishment might sink in for witnesses and executioners alike. "Having someone enter the chamber to administer the drugs will force us to decide who will take responsibility for taking a human life," says Mona Cadena of Amnesty International.


Above is an excerpt From Newsweek...what are your takes on this? For those who support capital punishment is this form of execution improper?

Re: Lethal Obejection-Is Lethal Injection Too Macabre?

It creeps me out.
the whole thing.
I don't know if there is any suitable way to execute someone...

Re: Lethal Obejection-Is Lethal Injection Too Macabre?

truthfully...since it costs the state so much moe money to execute someone...with all the court appeals and leagal mombo jumbo before the act is actually carried out...I say just leave them to rot and die in prison. I'm not against capital punishment...I am againt is costing the payers so much more $$ that keeping the person in prison.

but on the other side of the coin...if someone ever attempted to take my DH's life because he choose to serve and protect...well then that person needs to die...and I could care less how cruel the death is.

Re: Lethal Obejection-Is Lethal Injection Too Macabre?

How ironic is that statement that that killer made: "This isn't execution. It is murder."


I am not for capital punishment because I feel these criminals should rot in jail, spending everyday of their lives knowing full well why they are in there. Plus I don't feel anyone has the right to decide whether someone lives or dies.

But, I have to say that if lethal injection turns out to be a bit more "inhumane" than we intended it to be...well, I don't feel bad. And I'm not the one giving the injection. Should it be changed if that's the case? I guess.

Re: Lethal Obejection-Is Lethal Injection Too Macabre?

Re: Lethal Obejection-Is Lethal Injection Too Macabre?

I am against capital punishment for several reasons. I think the idea of humane execution is sort of an oxymoron.

Re: Lethal Obejection-Is Lethal Injection Too Macabre?

I see nothing wrong with it what-so-ever...

ETA...no i do not think it is improper and for some TOO HUMANE


The cost is primarily in legal crap with appeals and what-not.

IMO, take some of them out back shot them

Message edited 3/3/2006 7:35:13 PM.

Re: Lethal Obejection-Is Lethal Injection Too Macabre?

hmm....
My opinion is, if you are in a death penalty state, and receive that, then you obviously did something inhumane such as as kill someone. So, then imo, they themselves should not be treated humanely anymore and should suffer.

I would not take pity on anyone who killed someone that I loved.