Posted on 12/29/2004 12:17:45 PM PST by Ellesu
HARTFORD, Conn. -- The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union is entering the legal fray over next month's scheduled execution of serial killer Michael Ross, challenging lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.
The CCLU lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court on behalf of Ross' father, Dan Ross, acting as "next friend" to his son.
The lawsuit cites an anesthesiologist's critical report of Connecticut's death penalty procedures and his conclusions that the process could inflict severe pain and trauma on Ross.
"Media witnesses or family witnesses are being misled [about the procedure ], because it looks like the person is fine when they potentially could be in excruciating pain," attorney Annette Lamoreaux, legal director of the CCLU.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday evening, asks a federal judge to halt the execution until the claims can be fully argued in court.
Named as defendants are Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Correction Commissioner Theresa C. Lantz and David Strange, warden of the Osborn Correctional Institution, where Ross is now housed and scheduled to be executed.
Attached to the lawsuit is a 17-page affidavit by Dr. Mark Heath, a professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University, who has extensively researched lethal injection procedures.
Heath raises concerns about both the low dosage and the manner of delivery of thiopental sodium, a sedative designed to render Ross unconscious at the start of the lethal injection procedure.
Heath concludes there are "myriad features" of the directive that "needlessly and recklessly increase the risk of failure" to properly deliver the anesthetizing thiopental into Ross' system.
Earlier in the day in New London Superior Court, Ross, 45, reiterated his wish to forgo further appeals and proceed to his execution. Judge Patrick Clifford found him mentally and intellectually competent to do so.
Ask his victims if it hurt or was painful when he did what he did. No more cruel or unusual than they are would be ok by me.
Put him in uniform and send him on a one-man patrol in Mosul.
Public hanging would be better.
Then hang the SOB. That was the common punishment for such crimes when the Constitution and Bill of Rights were passed. I'm sure it wasn't considered cruel and unusual at the time.
Personally I'd prefer a serial firing squad, with a relative of each of his victims to have shot, one at a time.
I don't have the link, but his claims have been challenged.
keelhauling...thats an oldie but a goodie
Oh balderdash. On Monday before Christmas we had to put down our dog. I was there, her eyes were open and there was no pain in them during the few seconds it took for her to stop breathing and for her heart to stop. Shortly after her heart and lungs stopped, the light began to fade from those eyes, but there was no pain in them ever. She deserved such a peaceful end, two legged scum convicted of murder by a jury in a court of law do not.
From "The Straight Dope":
"Drawing and quartering is another punishment mentioned in kids' movies only because nobody realizes what's involved. The statutory punishment for treason in England from 1283 to 1867, D&Q was a multimedia form of execution. First the prisoner was drawn to the place of execution on a hurdle, a type of sledge. (Originally he was merely dragged behind a horse.) Then he was hanged. Cut down while still alive, he was disembowelled and his entrails burned before his eyes. (Some references, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, say this step, and not dragging behind a horse, is what is meant by "drawn," but actual sentences of execution don't support this view.) Finally the condemned was beheaded and his body cut into quarters, one arm or leg to a quarter. How exactly the quartering was to be accomplished was not always specified, but on at least some occasions horses were hitched to each of the victim's limbs and spurred in four directions. An assistant with a sword or cleaver was sometimes assigned to make a starter cut and ease the strain on the animals. The remains were often put on display as a warning to others."
Ugh. Now that's cruel.
The lawsuit cites an anesthesiologist's critical report of Connecticut's death penalty procedures and his conclusions that the process could inflict severe pain and trauma on Ross.
Excuse me, but I don't give a flyin' fat rat's butt what kind of pain and trauma lethal injection would cause him. Why doesn't the court or these lawyers ask the victims what kind of pain and trauma Ross caused them? Oh wait, they can't - they're dead because of him. Please excuse the anger/sarcasm.
I have not heard of a single dissatisfied customer...
Cruel and unusual might be trying to kill them with a BB gun?? Sounds painful.
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