Ohio executes inmate with 1-drug lethal injection

Source: Associated Press

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- Ohio executed a killer Tuesday by performing the nation's first lethal injection using a single drug, a supposedly less painful method than previous executions that required three drugs.

Kenneth Biros was pronounced dead at 11:47 a.m. Tuesday, about 10 minutes after one dose of thiopental sodium began flowing into his veins at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected his final appeal about two hours before.

Experts predicted the thiopental sodium would take longer to kill the 51-year-old Biros than the convention three-drug cocktail, but the 10 minutes it apparently took him to die was about the usual length of time even under the method previously used by Ohio and still used by most other death penalty states.

-snip-

States are watching Ohio's change, but none have made a similar switch. Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia are among those saying they will keep the three-drug method.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OHIO_EXECUTION?SITE=CAANR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

(80 pounds, so half a human) to sleep, it was gentle and painless for him. Not for me. There was no 10 minutes to die, or thrashing movements, he went to sleep, then died peacefully in my arms. Why is that, whatever that is, not available for humans?

...that it lies in the probability that the dog\cat is not aware of the procedure and is not fighting it.

Plus...our pets are not evil. Well most of them...my cat Phoenix has some evil tendencies.

something about human consciousness, wanting to be awake and experience the end? I know people who are going to die often do not want to sleep, for fear of dying in their sleep.

Puddy-tat just slightly slumped, immediately gone. I didn't even know it for sure.

So what's the deal here? Ten minutes?

Had enough time to be picked up by my wife and take one last look before slipping away. That's something I was not able to witness in person, and have no wish to do so. I said my goodbyes and went outside with my 3 year old. The burial, however, was no problem for me (having to dig, place the body, etc.)

as if you were never sick and dying. You think the person, or pet is better all of a sudden. It is a sign that the end is coming.
maybe that's happened with your cat? I know my dog, after days of in and out of consciousness sat up like he was fine the day I took him. It made me feel 10 times worse. because he didn't seem sick at that moment.

To wandering the house and mewing like she was in heat. It was odd.

Raid + mud + rocks = :cry:

Even with the needle, there are many death penalty fans who think it's too "easy" on the executed.

God forbid we should show any mercy while we kill a man.

The fact that we know we've killed some innocent men seems lost on most death penalty aficionados.

If we genuinely wanted to execute people painlessly, we absolutely have the means to do so. That we don't is, in my view, further evidence that the death penalty is more about getting a pound of flesh than any (alleged) deterrent effect.

:shrug:

Biros killed the 22-year-old Engstrom near Warren in 1991 after offering to drive her home from a bar, then scattered her body parts in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Before dying Tuesday, he apologized for his crime and thanked his friends and relatives for supporting him.

"I'm being paroled to my father in heaven," Biros said. "I will now spend all of my holidays with my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ."

to meet their god. Sounds nice.

but why is it a drawn-out process? :shrug:

Why not make the final punishment fast and easy? :shrug:

'Safe', Effective, Painless: Royal Dutch Society for the Advancement of Pharmacy (1994). "Administration and Compounding of Euthanasic Agents". The Hague.
http://wweek.com/html/euthanasics.html.

win-win.

These people insist on picking drugs that drag out death and guarantee pain.

They are worried about finding a humane way to kill them, while completely ignoring the issue of whether it is humane to coldly and calculatingly put a human being to death. How very humane of the murderers.

n/t

They shouldn't be in the killing business, either.