Posted on 09/20/2006 7:22:13 PM PDT by SmithL
Starke -- A convicted killer who argued that Florida's use of lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment was put to death Wednesday night after the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly denied him another stay.
Clarence Hill, 48, was executed for the 1982 murder of a Pensacola police officer in a savings and loan robbery. He did not reply when asked if he had a last statement, staring straight at the ceiling.
Hill had argued that the three chemicals used in Florida executions and by many other states sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride can cause excruciating pain. The first drug is a painkiller. The second one paralyzes the inmate and the third causes a fatal heart attack.
In January, Hill was strapped to a gurney and his arms were hooked up to IV tubes before the Supreme Court stopped his execution. In June, in a 9-0 vote, the high court ruled that Hill could mount a challenge to the chemicals under a civil rights motion.
However, a district court in Tallahassee and an appeals court in Atlanta refused to hear those challenges, ruling that Hill should have filed earlier. An appeal was again filed with the Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 on Wednesday to deny another stay.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter and John Paul Stevens voted to grant the stay, the court said in a two-sentence order.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Yeah, right.:-) I can't imagine they feel anything regardless of what the lawyers would like to have us believe.
It wouldn't have made much of a difference. The potassium overdose makes your muscles relax, plus they're so wasted on the barbituate overdose that they lose consciousness and stop breathing. The whole argument is BS.
Hey, Buh-Bye Clarence; say hi to Tookie!
"I have NO sympathy for a murderer. That officer murdered by him had no choice, no stay, nothing. This creep eeked out a cowardly "reprieve". They should have punished him long ago - execution and stop wasting tax payer dollars and running up legal bills."
Agree 100%.
Then again, I don't wonder, and I don't give a damn, either.
Good riddance, Mr. Hill. You will not be missed.
I realize that. Since they give the drugs in sequence, if the first is Pentothal........the rest doesn't matter to the receiver.
When the hangman for the famous Judge Parker (the hanging judge for the territories in the 1800s) was asked if he had ever been haunted by the spirits of those he hanged. He stated that "No, I reckon I hanged them too".
Why is it I cant think of his name?
Lethal injection is not cruel and certainly not unusual. This creep is now in hell where he belongs.
I had an emergency C-section and they started cutting before i was completely out. I thought they were killing me, but then I was out like the proverbial light.
Saved the baby though. That was the preemie, they were in a hurry. :)
Glad everything worked out! I can imagine the pain you felt, if only briefly. Labor is pretty bad, too.
Sodium pentothal is not merely a painkiller. It is also an anesthetic: it knocks you out. It is routinely used in surgery. I have had it several times. It causes no pain, and it allows you to feel no pain. I can say that from first-hand experience.
This is the drug used in the Netherlands for euthanasia. Of course, it looks as if liberals favor that, and I have never heard them express any worry over possible pain in that situation. This speculation about pain in the execution of criminals, in the way it is now done, is foolishness. If there is any p[ain, it must be the prick of the needle. Not much for someone who is a murder.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiopental
Follow the posts back to my original one on Sod. Pentothal.
They should ask Clarence if it really did hurt. "Clarence, answer 'yes' if it hurt". Guess it didn't hurt since he won't answer.
Too bad he was wrong. Did this guy expect to die laughing?
Ah what the hell! Throw in a little Nitris Oxide just for laughs.
Did he come back to life and complain?
Ok it's not cruel, but it is unusual, bring back Hammurabbi. Equal justice under the equal law!
The electric chair was so much better.
He should have volunteered for the firing squad then, or the noose if it was such a pain for him.
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