Posted on 02/12/2007 7:47:47 PM PST by Graybeard58
TAMPA — A doctor told a panel reviewing Florida’s lethal injection procedures that executioners “did the worst thing they could do” during the botched killing of condemned inmate Angel Diaz last year.
The testimony came from Mark Heath, a Columbia University anesthesiologist who has testified on the behalf of death row inmates in about 20 states.
But despite such testimony, the key question of whether Diaz suffered pain during the execution remained murky. Heath said the execution team “did exactly 100 percent the wrong thing” during the Dec. 13 execution of Diaz, who was condemned for the 1979 shooting death of a Miami topless club manager.
Plastic needles threaded into Diaz’s arms tore through his veins, splashing chemicals into his flesh. Because the chemical didn’t go directly to Diaz’s brain and heart, he took 34 minutes to die — about twice as long as usual.
An autopsy the next day showed Diaz suffered footlong chemical blisters on both of his arms.
Florida’s execution procedures call for a three-drug cocktail: a sedative, a drug that causes paralysis and a drug that causes a fatal heart attack.
The executioner testified last week that he released the sedative into Diaz, then couldn’t get the paralytic drug to flow into Diaz’s vein. The doctor who performed the autopsy said Diaz’s veins likely tore right away, so none of the sedative likely made it to his brain quickly.
“None of the materials injected went to the right place,” Medical Examiner William Hamilton testified Monday. “Was he feeling anything? I don’t know.”
A medical member of the execution team then decided to release the third drug, which causes a severe burning pain, into Diaz’s other arm. This move baffled Heath because the painful third drug likely was injected into Diaz’s body without the benefit of the sedative.
The vein in the second arm also broke, perhaps preventing Diaz from suffering severe burning pain from the third drug, Heath said.
“Thank God the other IV wasn’t working either,” Heath said. “The people doing this could not have thought through the contingencies.”
Heath said witness accounts that Diaz was breathing “like a fish out of water” lead him to believe the drug causing a painful feeling of paralysis took effect before the painkiller.
“That is a classic sign — that fish-out-of-water look — that the person is partially paralyzed and struggling for breath,” Heath said.
He added, “Mr Diaz, in my opinion, was not properly anesthetized.”
The drugs eventually were absorbed from Diaz’s flesh into his bloodstream, but at a very slow rate. It’s unknown just how fast each drug was absorbed because nobody has tested how rapidly those drugs are absorbed through human tissue.
State officials who participated in the execution have testified that they saw no evidence of pain, in contrast to press witnesses whose published accounts told of Diaz grimacing, squinting and coughing. A capital defense attorney who witnessed the execution also said Diaz appeared to be in pain.
Whether Diaz felt pain is important because the U.S. Constitution forbids the government from exposing any prisoner to cruel and unusual punishment.
Blood samples taken during and immediately after the execution could indicate if an inmate experienced pain. But in most cases, including with Diaz, blood samples aren’t taken until an autopsy the next day. By this time the drug levels have broken down.
Heath told the panel that if it wants to carry out executions by lethal injection, it should have doctors at the inmate’s gurney to troubleshoot any problems. That creates a Catch-22 for the state because medical associations forbid doctors from participating in executions.
The panel was formed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush after Diaz’s death, and no other executions have been scheduled.
The panel is expected to meet again Monday in Tampa, at which point it may hear from a doctor who has testified on behalf of state governments that use lethal injection procedures similar to Florida’s.
"And, don't call me a surgeon....I know who both my parents are."
Nasty, but very, very good!!!
Heck, I didn't even get to the other option, which is a bigger revenue generator: Roman style (i.e.: slow) executions, on pay per view. Billions for the budget, using flesh that's already condemned anyway, so why not get some fun and cash out of it?
You'd be wrong about the deterrent effect.
Back in medieval Europe, the punishment for counterfeiting was to be boiled in lead, an inch at a time. People counterfeited anyway.
What matters is only the degree to which the criminal thinks he will be caught, or cares. Serial killers don't care if they end up dead. They enjoy the killing enroute. You're never going to deter that.
Likewise street gang killings, and domestic killings done in rage. Nothing will stop the nuts from doing it. They're nuts. You can probably dissuade the rational, cold-blooded killers to a degree, but they're usually professionals and don't get caught.
Caught in the Organ Draft!
Ever read anything by Larry Niven? When we start using death row inmates for spare parts, all of a sudden running red lights becomes a death penalty crime.
Watch out for the organleggers.
1. Surgeons -- $177,690
2. Anesthesiologists -- $174,240
Granted that's MSN... the whole chart is probably wrong.
"When we start using death row inmates for spare parts, all of a sudden running red lights becomes a death penalty crime."
Only if you are a low-status individual.
And it's not as entertaining either.
The entertainment value of public executions, especially if carefully thought out to be visually exciting and horriffic, would be immense. The income to the public treasury from selling live feed on pay-per-view, with the follow-up syndications and spin-offs (imagine the coffee-table Time-Life book "Great Executions", with broadsheet-sized full-color photos of the carnage...now THAT would sell!) would be enormous.
There'd be "REAL Justice League" trading cards sold with bubble gum: "Oooo, Oooo, I'll trade you a Jeffrey Dahmer impalement and a John Wayne Gacy crucifixion for a Unabomber boiling and a Suzanne Smith drowning!"
Think of the boost to commerce and to the general civic respect for law and order! Think of the receipts.
Unfortunately, all of the interesting ways to kill criminals destroys their bodies and makes their organs unusable...WAIT! I have the perfect solution for organ harvesting AND revenue-maximization from gory public executions: Death by vivisection! We execute death row inmates BY extracting their organs for reuse, flaying them for their skin, etc.! That would provide all the screaming and drama anyone could hope for AND would provide good organs for use! Why didn't I think of that before!
"All they need to do that is give them a organ donor card, take them unconscious into a trauma center connected to a transplant hospital at a medical university, and make sure they come late at night."
If you vivisect them while unconscious in the hospital you lose all the cool screaming and pay-per-view revenues, which is where the big profit lies. Since the profit will go to the government and raise massive revenues, it will lower the taxes of us good law-abiding citizens. Anesthetizing and privately executing death row inmates is not tax-efficient.
No, no. It needs to be public, excruciating, slow, televised on pay-per-view, and effective - that's the way to simultaneously maximize revenues, deterrence and health benefits from organ harvesting. Think of the children!
LOL
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