Posted on 02/02/2006 10:42:30 PM PST by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is taking a new look at the use of lethal injections to execute condemned prisoners after the challenges of three inmates who were barely saved from the needle by the Supreme Court.
The justices will not reopen the cases of Michael Taylor, a rapist and killer who was due to be executed in Missouri on Wednesday, or Clarence Hill and Arthur Rutherford, two convicted killers in Florida who have also had their executions stayed over the past eight days.
But the highest US court will decide whether the three can challenge the use of the deadly mix of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride for executions.
Lawyers for Taylor, Hill and Rutherford are all arguing separately that the mix is "cruel" and "inhumane", which would make it proscribed by the US constitution.
John Simon, a lawyer for Taylor, whose victim was a 15-year-old girl, said he was not an abolitionist. He told AFP he was simply arguing that the chemicals could cause added suffering for his client when he is executed.
The Supreme Court halted Taylor's execution after its scheduled time. Hill had been strapped to a stretcher with intravenous tubes in his arm ready to receive the chemicals when word came through from the justices in Washington on January 24.
Stephen Harper, a law professor at the University of Miami, said the new challenges to the lethal injection followed the publication of a study by experts at the university in April last year which described the suffering of death row inmates given the death cocktail.
The researchers said in a letter to the British review, The Lancet, that sodium thiopental, which is used as an anaesthesia, may not work properly.
The pancuronium bromide is given next to induce paralysis, and finally potassium chloride to stop the heart and cause death.
"Without anaesthesia, the condemned person would experience suffocation and excruciating pain without being able to move or communicate that fact," said the study.
Of the 38 US states where the death penalty is still legal, 20 use just the injection and most of the others rely mainly on this form of execution.
More suspensions of death penalties are possible but experts said it does not mean that the lethal injection is seriously threatened yet.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, said the Supreme Court will only decide whether the legality of the injections can be raised with lower courts as a civil rights matter.
"It is the first step in at least getting the matter into the court," he said.
"The bigger issue of lethal injection will get decided by many different courts and you may have many different opinions and that issue may come back to the Supreme Court to decide once and for all."
A final decision may take years.
In the meantime, death row inmates in Maryland, California and other states are now trying to get their executions suspended.
But not all of the challenges are working. Last week the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to let Indiana state execute Marvin Bieghler, overturning an appeals court decision clearing the way for him to challenge lethal injection as well.
I have a nifty idea... Give enough of an anesthetic to cause an overdose. Then go with the additional chemicals.
Or, even better, say "Screw You! How concerned were you with suffering when you kidnapped, raped, and murdered that young lady?"
I'm waiting for someone to come up with an appeal to a jail sentance, saying, "being locked up in jail is cruel and unusual punnishment!"
Mark
Or withhold food and water! That's a fun way to die! Just ask the people who killed Terri Schiavo!
Mark
Leftists only support the killing of innocent people. They oppose killing murderers. I suppose they realize that criminals and murderers are potential voters and supporters.
Taylor, MichaelCase Facts: After using drugs, Roderick Nunley and Michael Taylor stole a car. While driving the car, the two men spotted a fifteen-year old girl waiting for her school bus. Taylor allegedly stated he wanted to steal the girls purse, and Nunley, who was driving, stopped the car. Taylor spoke to the girl and then grabbed her and forced her into the car. Nunley then drove to his mothers house. The girl was taken out of the car and forced to crawl down to the basement. Taylor then raped the girl. At some point, Nunley gave Taylor some lubricant to facilitate the forced sexual intercourse. After the assault, the two men forced the girl into the trunk of the stolen car and tied her up. After Taylor stated he was afraid the girl would identify him, the two men decided to kill the girl. Nunley retrieved two knives from the kitchen and both men stabbed the girl. Nunley knew the girl was going to die from her wounds. (The former county medical examiner testified the victim was stabbed ten times and she died approximately thirty minutes later.) The men drove to a nearby neighborhood and parked the car, leaving the girl in the trunk. Nunley gave a videotaped confession to the police.
Tit for tat.
No way man. Even though it is way cool it is french.
Use a typical American way of killing, smother them with dollar bills.
Lawyers for Taylor, Hill and Rutherford are all arguing separately that the mix is "cruel" and "inhumane",
----So were the crimes to the victims they committed in the first place. Who cares what they think or want. I don't recall them caring when their victims no doubt begged for their lives or they would still be ALIVE.
I've been sedated for sugery a couple of times and I guarantee
there is no pain. If they can sedate me to the point that they can cut me open and mess with my insides and I am not aware of it, then they can take it to the next level with no worries of causing undue discomfort to the convict during his execution.
Even if that were true, they won't feel it for long.
How hard can it be? I've been with pets as they were put to sleep and I've never seen one last more than a breath or two after the injection. Seems very painless...they go limp and are gone within a few seconds.
That said, I'd prefer criminals suffer a bit. They don't deserve a comfortable end, like a beloved pet.
Git a rope!
I would choose carbon monoxide poisining. You don't feel a thing but wanting to go to sleep and as soon as you fall asleep you are gone.
That easy Hang them See fixed easy huh.
Fine, let the friendly radical Islamic jail guards chop off their heads.
Absolutely brilliant!!
hmmm, that would probably be ok. How about the Guillotine? I think that would be rather painless also, sever the brain stem and its over.
Yeah, at least with the guillotine you never knew what hit you, lol!
if i got the guillotiene i would ask for either my eyes be duct taped closed(duct tape around my head and eyes, or a black bag, just incase for that split second that your head is
cut off to make sure that you dont see anything. :)
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