SAUNDERS: Inartful execution

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/23/6 | Debra J. Saunders

[SmithL]

U.S. DISTRICT Judge Jeremy Fogel tried to find a commonsense way of addressing defense lawyers' arguments that convicted rapist/murderer Michael Morales might feel pain during his execution by lethal injection - scheduled for Feb. 21, but now postponed. He tried to do the right thing, and for that Fogel got snookered.

Californians got snookered too. The state switched from poison gas in 1996 in order to make executions as painless as possible. Now defense lawyers have used that goal to postpone the execution of a man -- who raped, bludgeoned, strangled and knifed 17-year-old Terri Winchell -- because he might conceivably feel pain after being injected with the first of the three drugs used according to the state's execution protocol.

Last year, a study published in the Lancet found that 43 of 49 executed inmates may not have had sufficient drugs in their system to ensure unconsciousness when they were injected with other drugs that could cause pain to the conscious. (Critics question the results as the blood work often was done hours after the execution.) Morales' attorneys argued that some condemned California inmates may have felt pain because they breathed longer than an expert expected and witnesses saw some inmates' bodies move after the first injection.

Judge Fogel noted that the court understood that "over 99.999999999999" percent of the population would be rendered unconscious within a minute of a properly administered shot of sodium pentothal. That should mean: Case closed. Morales will have to take his chances.

But no, in order to spare Morales any possibility of pain, Fogel told the state to have a doctor at the execution in order to make sure Morales was unconscious before prison staff injected the other drugs.

[SmithL]

Another great analysis by Debra. However, I'm far more willing to question Fogel's motives in this than she is.

[Stark_GOP]

"...that convicted rapist/murderer Michael Morales might feel pain during his execution..."
---
Should anyone be concerned that he feels some pain during his execution.

I do not.

[skip_intro]

Should anyone be concerned that he feels some pain during his execution.

Of course, it has nothing to do with that.

It's simply the latest way to stop capital punishment, and for now it's worked perfectly. All future executions in California are now on hold because of this.

[Kenton]

Lancet found that 43 of 49 executed inmates may not have had sufficient drugs in their system to ensure unconsciousness when they were injected

It would seem the solution to this is easy and obvious. Increase the dose.

[joe fonebone]

or, a single bullet to the back of the head.........if they are worried that the bullet might not work, use a bigger bullet..........416 weatherby comes to mind...

[Stark_GOP]

I, personally speaking of course, want him to know that he is dying and not just going to sleep.

I view as part of the punishment portion of his sentence.

[MrEdd]

Slowly lower him into a vat of sulfuric acid with a chain hoist.

[50sDad]

I hear the guiotine is very fast; that would save the endless namby-pamby minutes waiting for the poison to take effect. I hear that is very taxing on a convicted, dirtbag, murderous, child-molesting rapist.

[gogeo]

I usually agree with Debra, but she did give the judge a pass. It's his courtroom; he's responsible for the foolishness that goes on there.

[50sDad]

That might be unduly painful. I recommend putting him in a round room with a high-powered rotating floor-mounted laser that would surigcally cut off 1" from the bottom of his body with every turn, but hey, that's just me.

The thing that makes me gag is that these feel-good, touchy-feely doctors who are too good to painlessly administer anesthisia to a child rapist because it will kill him, and thats "against their oath" are often the ones who will go back to their clinics and "help the poor" by ripping unborn human beings from their mother's wombs.

[50sDad]

That might be unduly painful. I recommend putting him in a round room with a high-powered rotating floor-mounted laser that would surgically cut off 1" from the bottom of his body with every turn, but hey, that's just me.

The thing that makes me gag is that these feel-good, touchy-feely doctors who are too good to painlessly administer anesthesia to a child rapist because it will kill him, and thats "against their oath" are often the ones who will go back to their clinics and "help the poor" by ripping unborn human beings from their mother's wombs.

[ItsForTheChildren]

Slowly lower him into a vat of sulfuric acid with a chain hoist.

and if he moves, give him another shot.

[Ragnar54]

The Bill of Rights does not guarantee "pain free" punishment. The Founding Fathers were perfectly happy with hanging criminals. Therefore we can conclude that hanging is not "cruel and unusual punishments ". It would not require a physician, and the rope could be reused. Perhaps California could test the new Supreme Court by re-instituting hanging as the means of execution.

I read of an execution (by lethal injection) in which the murderer died with a smile on his face. The murderer had good reason to smile: he had beaten the rap for years with one appeal after another, and then felt no pain at the end.

[Kenton]

Or a claw hammer, maybe. Seems appropo...

[geezerwheezer]

I prefer the cutting off of his "privates", then just letting him bleed to death. Now that would be painful, but I'd feel better about things. Also, make all the other prisoners watch this, and I'll bet the message would "sink in" really quick.

[tje]

a single bullet to the back of the head

And they'd never feel it.

[calcowgirl]

But... was Fogel snookered or a participant in the scheme?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1583397/posts
Bio -- Federal District Judge Jeremy D. Fogel (thanks to him, the murderer still lives)

[goldstategop]

Debra Saunders got it wrong. Jeremy Fogel obstructed justice by imposing what he knew are impossible to meet conditions on the death penalty. As for causing murderers pain... oh puhleeaze. The same courts gave their blessing to starve Terri Schiavo to death and forbade even giving her water to make comfortable. But we are supposed to be concerned with a murderer's tender psyche. No, Debra, Jeremy Fogel is a leftist anti-death penalty SOB. You should have done your homework before you published your puff piece on him.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[goldstategop]

I hate judges who subvert our laws. The whole point of punishment is to inflict PAIN on the offender. DUH. That's how they learn about the consequences of their choices. Its called a teachable moment. But soft on crime liberals don't want criminals to feel the slightest discomfort. Oh wait - something has been left out of the Morales case and that is the victim Terri Winchell. In all of the concern about the poor murderer's terror of dying, no one seemed to have remembered what he did to her. She's been forgotten. That's why I'm disgusted at this spectacle.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

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