Posted on 01/03/2015 7:31:29 PM PST by bkopto
Recent botched executions aren’t doing much to sway proponents of the practice in a number of states where it remains legal — in fact, they’re causing states to look at older and potentially more brutal methods of execution, according to a recent report.
Oklahoma’s most recent execution of Clayton Lockett in April was an extremely disturbing one, in which he writhed while being pumped with lethal drugs, prompting executions to eventually draw the curtains for the gallery. The warden described it as a “bloody mess,” according to the Associated Press.
The execution joined a pair of others in Ohio and Arizona, giving capital punishment opponents ammunition to attack the legality of the practice, hoping to use the incidents to encourage people to change their minds on the death penalty. However, the report indicates that the campaign does not appear to be working.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin suspended further executions after the incident with Lockett, but only to review the methods of execution, and months later unveiled an overhauled execution chamber that will resume killing the condemned in January.
In fact, the recent ugly deaths have caused states to explore older methods of execution due to the difficulty in securing the right lethal drugs.
Lydia Polley, a member of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in the report that the group had a “flash of hope” that the botched execution would help their cause, but it ultimately “just led to people thinking of better ways to kill them.”
Oklahoma has killed more inmates than any state except neighboring Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Officials have even provided tours of the $104,000 renovated execution chamber to the media.
The Oklahoma House of Representatives recently conducted a study on using nitrogen gas to execute inmates, which would make it the first state to make legal the use of hypoxia by gas as an execution method.
Oklahoma isn’t the only state to explore alternatives to drugs, which have been hard to come by as many pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell them the compounds they need.
Tennessee, for example, has passed a law reinstating the electric chair in instances where it can’t get the right drugs, and Utah has even examined resurrecting the firing squad.
Still, proponents have pledged to push on, even if many states remain firmly in favor of capital punishment, regardless of the risks.
Did they quit making rope and trees?
If you can’t do the time...don’t do the crime.
A scene in “Fargo” comes to mind.
What’s wrong with a good old fashioned morphine overdose? Plentiful and painless, who could argue. Put ‘em to sleep first.
Some show had an episode on methods of execution. I believe nitrogen was found to be the quickest and most painless. Just breathe it for little awhile and then you just pass out and you’re gone.
I was stopped at a light the other day and heard a heaving truck stop beside me. I looked over and right in front of me were big letters on the side of a giant white tank: NITROGEN.
Stupid TV.
How about explosives?
Fall from a very Tall Building ?
About 10 grams of Potassium Chloride delivered by an IV bolus will do the trick every time.
Seems like a better mouse trap.
BOTCHED? Nonsense! He’s dead ain’t he! And he didn’t die live HIS VICTIM!
Botched is when the prison system forgets to execute you as happened to a person I know. Sentenced to death, the Oklahoma prison system forgot to execute him! So they gave him LIFE in prison!
BRING back the rope! Hanging Judge Parker knew how to handle criminals!
We could outsource this to ISIS?
Mormons require the spilling of blood. Why don’t they reinstate the throat cutting the original Mormons did!
I don’t believe in Mormonism but I will go along with throat cutting!
The execution should be quick but frightening to the condemned.
Americans are squeemish about blood. What is wrong with a good old fashioned western style hanging complete with hymn singing before the trap door send-off?
I think something like “Thunderdome” would be kinda cool.
“Two men enter, one man leaves.”
I wrote a short story about it a few years back, but it went nowhere.
“Lydia Polley, a member of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said in the report that the group had a “flash of hope” that the botched execution would help their cause, but it ultimately “just led to people thinking of better ways to kill them.”
Sheesh... she makes it sound like thinking of better ways is somehow a bad thing!
Hanging can lead to decapitation or slow asphyxiation. I agree, it’s still pretty foolproof. Short drop to prevent decapitation, except for the extremely obese (tough). Let ‘em choke and twist in the wind for while.
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