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Hmmmm...

Cruel executions:

he paper went on to note that lethal injection is the most humane method available and is a vast improvement over prior punishments, such as hanging and the electric chair. “Once tried and convicted of a felony,” the paper concluded, “you have given up the right to live how you want. It also means that if you are sentenced to death, you’ve given up the right to die how you want. Not ironically, it’s the same right that murderers took away from their victims.” In the current Supreme Court case, Justice Scalia questioned attorney Verrilli about the argument that the state must use the least painful methods of execution: “We have approved electrocution. We have approved death by firing squad. I expect both of these have more possibilities of painful death than the protocol here. But where is it written that the state must choose the least painful method? Is that somewhere in the Constitution?”

An editorial in the North County Gazette (New York State) wondered why lethal injection is cruel, but death by dehydration over a 13-day period is not. The editorial was referring to Terri Schiavo, allowed by the Supreme Court to die by starvation and dehydration, a process that took nearly two weeks. Schiavo had been in a lengthy coma, disabled and unable to speak. Justice Anthony Kennedy refused to allow the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear Schiavo’s case. Subsequently, her husband, Michael Schiavo was permitted to remove his wife’s feeding tube, setting in motion 13 days of starvation and dehydration.

Another execution that has been put on hold is that of Ohio inmate Jeffrey Lundgren, convicted of fatally shooting a family of five. Lundgren now claims that lethal injection would be a cruel way to put him to death and is part of a class action suit that challenges Ohio’s method of execution. Court transcripts show that Lundgren carried the youngest of the murdered children around on his shoulders before shooting her.

Supreme Court hears lethal injection case

8mm

Waking from a coma, in this thread by TheDon. Thanks, wagglebee, for the ping.

........................

THE COMA

It remains a mystery who bashed in Randy Hall's skull the night of April 19, 2000 – possibly the jealous husband of his latest conquest or a jilted lover. No one was arrested and the Orange County Sheriff's Dept. has closed the case. What's not a mystery is who saved Randy's life as he lay in a coma for two years.

It was Alan – smart, articulate, stubborn Alan. With a background as a fraud investigator and an HMO director, he knew how to battle the system.

.....

After six months, Randy stabilized and Alan agreed to move him. He found a respected coma facility, with sweeping ocean views and dozens of patients. One had survived 13 years. Finally, Alan thought, his brother would recover. Or would he?

Didn't your last doctor tell you?the new doctor asked.

"Tell us what?"

He only has 30 percent of his brain function left. He's never going to come out of the coma.

.....

Medical miracle: Two-year coma survivor defies odds

8mm