Posted on 08/10/2018 8:51:15 AM PDT by KingofZion
Tennessee executed Billy Ray Irick on Thursday night, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a final request to stay his execution. Convicted of the 1985 rape and murder of 7-year-old Paula Dyer, Irick is the state’s first inmate to be put to death since 2009. He was also the first to receive Tennessee’s controversial new three-drug cocktail.
Thursday’s lethal injection was made up of compounded midazolam, used to render a person unable to feel pain during an execution, a paralytic drug called vecuronium bromide, and compounded potassium chloride for the killing agent. Potassium chloride has been described by the Supreme Court as “chemically burning at the stake.”
In recent years, there have been numerous executions where witness accounts raised questions about whether the inmates were sufficiently anesthetized when the killing drugs were administered. These performances have raised questions about Midazolam’s effectiveness as a sedative in executions. Thursday’s application for a stay of execution followed a lower state court determination that the new combination of drugs may not be not chemically appropriate.
*** The request to delay was referred to the U.S. Supreme Court by Justice Elena Kagan. The only noted dissent was from Justice Sonia Sotomayor; the court’s order did not specify how the other justices would have voted. Irick’s is the first death-penalty case that’s come to the court since Justice Anthony M. Kennedy retired July 31, which left the court shorthanded.
“Although the Midazolam may temporarily render Irick unconscious, the onset of pain and suffocation will rouse him. And it may do so just as the paralysis sets in, too late for him to alert bystanders that his execution has gone horribly (if predictably) wrong,” wrote Sotomayor. The dissent echoes comments she made last year aimed at Midazolam in a case involving an Alabama inmate.
***MORE
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I think the old earth will spin just fine on its axis without Billy Ray Irick on its surface any longer.
Tell Hitler he sucks when you see him.
Aw...the poor child rapist/murderer might have experienced pain for a few minutes. Cry me a river.
Alternatively, hanging is quick, relatively pain-free, and rope is free.
I hope Sotomayor was correct....
Robert Anthony Williams lived out his life at the Iowa Penitentiary.
He did the same thing to a little Des Moines girl in the 1970s.
What about the pain and terror of his little victim? Nowadays, these bleeding heart judges plead and plead for the “poor” perp who brutally ended the life of another person, usually with great pain and suffering. If they shot such convicted perps down like a dog in the streets, I wouldn’t lose any sleep about it. I don’t care if they have a few seconds of “suffering”. They’ve more than earned it.
The down side is? If I ran lethal injection I’d let the condemned choose a drug cocktail.
Better a millstone......
Too easy, quick and pain free....
Those executed get what they deserve....
No, we started down that road when Sotomayor and her ilk were put on the Supreme Court.
Three minutes of having to listen to Sotomayor and you’re begging for a lethal injection...you’ve already had the torturous pain.
Ya know, when I had neck surgery last November on C-3/C-7, when they knocked me out, I was gone in a second. They could have done me in and I would never have known. The pain came when I came out of the anesthesia. Pretty sure that’s the story for most folks who go under a general anesthesia. Of course there are exceptions.
The litle girl would have been about 40 now...
Yes, nitrogen suffocation is painless (the suffocation feeling one can get comes from the body sensing a buildup of CO2, not from lack of oxygen).
To avoid contrived dramatics, have it be unpredictable to the convict when his air mix changes from regular air to pure nitrogen.
Think about that, it took 33 yrs...all that wasted $.
Still had a much longer life and an easier death than his victim.
Obviously since their never going to allow a nitrogen gas chamber to be used, so they should cut the cerebral cortex prior to administering the lethal injection. They won’t feel a thing after that..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.