Posted on 05/01/2007 9:42:14 AM PDT by Princip. Conservative
Tennessee is ready to resume executions under new rules it released Monday, using a three-drug lethal injection method opponents say is still inhumane and unconstitutional.
Gov. Phil Bredesen will lift a 90-day moratorium on executions on Wednesday. Philip Workman, convicted of killing a Memphis police officer, is scheduled to die May 9.
"It's essentially the same protocol as before, with a little window dressing," Nashville attorney Brad MacLean said.
Among the complaints MacLean and other defense lawyers have about the execution method is the use of three chemicals to kill inmates.
Last week a medical review of dozens of executions found that the drugs used to execute prisoners in the U.S. sometimes fail to work as intended, causing inmates to die painful deaths in which the condemned suffocate and feel pain but are immobilized and unable to say they are suffering.
The state's new death penalty protocols use the three chemicals. The procedures do not address the state's other method of execution, the electric chair.
MacLean pointed out that one of the chemicals in the lethal injections has been banned from use to euthanize animals.
The new protocol lays out in much greater detail the process of administering the injection.
-- SNIP --
The governor, through his press secretary, responded that he respects the ABA but had no intention of extending the moratorium.
On Monday night, he reaffirmed his desire to end the moratorium.
"As this completes the work that I asked the commissioner to undertake, the moratorium on executions will expire on schedule on May 2, 2007," Bredesen wrote in a statement.
Since 1960, two inmates have been put to death in Tennessee, both by injection. Death row inmates convicted before 1999 get to choose between lethal injection and the electric chair.
(Excerpt) Read more at wbir.com ...
Why not strap Mr. Workman to a chair, and force him to watch “The View”? That ought to do it.
Or make him listen to Dixie Chicks records.
Of course it's inhumane. It causes death in the inmates.
Especially when they don’t sterilize the needles, they could develop a nasty infection, don’cha know?
Have they no tall buildings in Tennessee?
The executed still gets more mercy than his victims. Everybody forgets that the victim has ultimate civil rights violated.
“Among the complaints MacLean and other defense lawyers have about the execution method is the use of three chemicals to kill inmates.”
If that’s the problem, they should try two plus a placebo and study the effects.
The best way to execute criminals is hanging, quick, clean, cheap, and effective.
More enviromentaly friendly, uses less energy, helps cure global warming.
Later read/maybe ping.
I can’t understand why liberals think any excutions are unconstitutional. Makes no sense to me. And the only reason they’re unusual is there aren’t enough of them. That problem is easy to solve. Cruel? If they don’t like injections, hanging is a good alternative, and way cheaper.
Good work, Tennessee ! We're on your side no matter who comes out of the woodwork.
I never had understood the objections to hanging.
Done right, it’s quick and kills instantly. And given the number of murders each year in the country, our executioners ideally would be gettinig plenty of practice.
And it’s highly symbolic.
And, anyway, these people are being executed. While we don’t want to torture them, a little pain is to be expected when you are being killed.
The best way to execute someone is to put him in an old fashioned gas chamber and fill it with nitrogen. He will not experience any chocking or other symptom of suffocating, as the human body is used to a high concentration of nitrogen in the air. He will simply fall asleep and die.
Best of all - his organs are not damaged and still quite good for medical use such as transplants!
Exactly. For the reasons you mention, even the liberals should endorse it......
Say hey to Tookie!
What’s wrong with rope poisoning? It’s fast, humane and 100% effective. Just ask the ghost of Saddam Hussein. Despite the controversy surrounding his demise, he was stone dead and with his 72 Virgins an instant after the floor disappeared from under him...
All this fancy injection stuff takes much too long and prolongs an unpleasant task that should be over-and-done-with in a second or two, max. And it’s complicated and requires expensive equipment. A good stretch of hemp shouldn’t cost more than $20 at Wal*Mart.
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