Lethal Injection...new information is out

there is a possibility of "excrutiating pain" while being unable to speak or move. READ THIS:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/07/national/07LETH.html?th

attention Skinner: if a password is needed can i post the entire article?

Critics Say Execution Drug May Hide Suffering
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: October 7, 2003

ASHVILLE, Oct. 1 — At the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution here, through a set of double doors next to several vending machines, a gurney stands ready to deliver prisoners to their executions by lethal injection.

Just about every aspect of the death penalty provokes acrimonious debate, but this method of killing, by common consensus, is as humane as medicine can make it. People who have witnessed injection executions say the deaths appeared hauntingly serene, more evocative of the operating room than of the gallows.

But a growing number of legal and medical experts are warning that the apparent tranquillity of a lethal injection may be deceptive. They say the standard method of executing people in most states could lead to paralysis that masks intense distress, leaving a wide-awake inmate unable to speak or cry out as he slowly suffocates.

In 2001, it became a crime for veterinarians in Tennessee to use one of the chemicals in that standard method to euthanize pets.

The chemical, pancuronium bromide, has been among those specified for use in lethal injections since Oklahoma first adopted that method of execution in 1977. Only now, though, is widespread attention starting to focus on it.

Spurred by a lawsuit by a death row inmate here, advances in human and veterinary medicine, and a study last year that revealed for the first time the chemicals that many other states use to carry out executions, experts have started to question this part of the standard lethal injection method.

Pancuronium bromide paralyzes the skeletal muscles but does not affect the brain or nerves. A person injected with it remains conscious but cannot move or speak.

snip

:(

Why can't we move beyond this horror. It just makes no sense.

The lethal injection process has always been accused of being too "easy" on the perp. Now death penalty advocates they can get the torture they truly crave.

I hate hypocracy like this: why not just bring back crucifixion or drawing and quartering? That ought to make them happy.

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and I don't think there is a humane way you can take another person's life and call it "justice." However, there are many people that I think should be sentenced to life without parole.

I don't care how much a person's victim suffered before death, at what point are we better to take someone's life to prove it is wrong.

I had my beliefs challenged about a year ago when a colleague was brutally bludgeoned in his home over a car. He was literally running through the house while the man was attacking him with household objects he picked up along the way. It turned my stomach to read about the horrifying last moments of a person who was so intelligent, caring and gentle. At that point, I recall thinking the death penalty wasn't such a bad thing. (I calmed down after about a week.)

IMHO, that's why we need a society and a criminal justice system that will mitigate this bloodlust and need for revenge. Instead, we has a society in the U.S. that just seems to feed it, increasingly so in the last decade.

There are some people who will read this and undoubtedly be glad that they suffered tremendously. Left up to them, the pain would be even worse. As a society, though, I think we need to make a decision to evolve beyond this.

It's to keep monsters like this one from killing again either in prison or outside of it.

we become the monsters.

I clearly stated life with no chance of parole so that means there will be no chance of this person killing outside of prison and it also is the prison system's responsibility to ensure that the prisoners are safe and protected. If needed, the person sentenced to death can be sequestered to protect the other inmates.

I'm sure we will not see eye to eye on this issue or change either person's stance, so I am content to agree to disagree on this one.

Here's a shopping list:

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-countries-eng

Always makes me sick to see we are still in the company of such world "winners" as:

AFGHANISTAN, ALGERIA, ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, BAHAMAS, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH,
BARBADOS, BELARUS, BELIZE, BENIN, BOTSWANA, BURUNDI, CAMEROON, CHAD, CHINA,
COMOROS, CONGO (Democratic Republic), CUBA, DOMINICA, EGYPT, EQUATORIAL GUINEA,
ERITREA, ETHIOPIA, GABON, GHANA, GUATEMALA, GUINEA, GUYANA, INDIA, INDONESIA,
IRAN, IRAQ, JAMAICA, JAPAN, JORDAN, KAZAKSTAN, KENYA, KOREA (North), KOREA (South),
KUWAIT, KYRGYZSTAN, LAOS, LEBANON, LESOTHO, LIBERIA, LIBYA, MALAWI, MALAYSIA,
MAURITANIA, MONGOLIA, MOROCCO, MYANMAR, NIGERIA, OMAN, PAKISTAN, PALESTINIAN
AUTHORITY, PHILIPPINES, QATAR, RWANDA, SAINT CHRISTOPHER & NEVIS, SAINT LUCIA,
SAINT VINCENT & GRENADINES, SAUDI ARABIA, SIERRA LEONE, SINGAPORE, SOMALIA,
SUDAN, SWAZILAND, SYRIA, TAIWAN, TAJIKISTAN, TANZANIA, THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND
TOBAGO, TUNISIA, UGANDA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
UZBEKISTAN, VIET NAM, YEMEN, ZAMBIA, ZIMBABWE

GEE ain't we cute.

See what countries allow juveniles to be tried as adults and face the death penalty. The list is MUCH shorter and certainly not the company we should be in.

It is a relic of a bygone era when witches were burned, and thieves drawn and quartered. It should be consigned to history's dustbin. It is murder, by another name. :grr:

Edit: spelling error

Here ya go.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/142874_lethal07.html

-darknemus