Terminally Ill Man Executed In Oklahoma

Terminally Ill Man Executed In Oklahoma

POSTED: 6:31 pm CDT June 26, 2007
UPDATED: 6:42 pm CDT June 26, 2007

McALESTER, Okla. -- A terminally ill Oklahoma death row inmate was executed Tuesday after his final appeal for a reprieve was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.

<snip>

Bland, 49, was terminally ill with advanced lung cancer that spread to his brain and his hip bone, according to his attorney, David Autry. Bland received radiation and chemotherapy treatment, and his doctors said he had as little as six months to live.

Autry had warned that Bland's execution could have been a catastrophe if the veins in his arms were compromised by his chemotherapy treatments before a lethal dose of chemicals were injected as part of the execution process.

<snip>

Autry had asked the Supreme Court to block Bland's execution and decide whether executing a terminally ill inmate violates the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. The court denied the request late Thursday afternoon, said Charlie Price, spokesman for the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office.

http://www.koco.com/news/13575908/detail.html

I do not believe in the death penalty, and in this case it seems really uncalled for.

:crazy:

I've watched too many people die of lung cancer to think they did him anything but a favor, but apparently he disagreed.

Some people want time. Some people want quality.

how my grandfather A went. i would wlecome the death penalty. why chemo?

If they let the cancer kill him, they wouldn't have had their revenge.

Advocates of state-sanctioned murder often roll out the argument that "it's cheaper to kill them than to support them for the rest of their lives." Well, when we calculate the full cost of the appeals process, that argument goes right out the window; the cost to maintain a prisoner on death row until his natural death is substantially less than the cost of trying him all the way through the judicial system. That's true in a case of a normal life expectancy.

It's far more obviously true in the case of a terminally ill prisoner.

So what's the motivation behind the execution, aside from blood-thirsty vengeance?

Revenge killing.

you would think that there would be no point to utilizing the death penalty. More importantly what's the point of having a death penalty that takes so long to invoke that they die from natural causes? The whole damn thing is flawed so just throw it out instead of jerry-rigging it.

It is really sad that we are about the only "civilized" country which has capital punishment. Every new form of capital punishment is supposedly less inhumane, but then we find out it is inhumane too. Hell, even if the actual death was painless the wait for it would be cruel. What is even more gruesome is the fact that punishing an innocent person is not that rare.

It just makes me want to cry about the inhumanity we have towards humanity at times.

I recently toured a prison that was active up until 1995 I believe. It was gross! 5 x 7 cells. The entire facility was disgusting. Yet we have people acting as if being in jail was like spending time in a luxury resort! It gives me the creeps just thinking about it, and all the innocent folks who served time there. Saw a list of prisoners. Few had graduated from high school, even fewer had any college. The exhibit on "old sparky" had about 5-6 famous writeups about executions, and at least 2, maybe 3 mentioned that they had to shock the victim twice because he wasn't dead yet. Gross me out.

Sorry for the rant.

I do not see why this case would be any different than any other convicted inmate facing execution. :shrug:

Lung cancer can be a REALLY ugly way to go.

What's the point?

screening procedures. What's the point of that? Make sure they're healthy so you can kill them?

Personally, I think the death penalty is ridiculous. Our society is quite strange. The reality is that the death penalty costs way more than incarcerating
someone for life, and if they are wrongly convicted you have a chance to amend their sentence. But why do something that makes sense? :crazy:

Were these inmates at Central Prison?

UNC and Wake Med are the only hospitals I know of that care for prisoners. We get them from all over.

Just one of those habits we get into.

If there is a God, he will suffer from his lung cancer in hell for time eternal.

Jimmy Dale Bland was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Doyle Rains. Before 1996, Bland served 20 years of a 60 year sentence for manslaughter.

Very sad to see someone wishing another human being would "suffer in hell for time eternal."

:puke:

The death of one innocent via state-sanctioned murder irrevocably invalidates the entire nominal justification for capital punishment, which is frankly pretty flawed in any case.

until he was let out...

I am sure he had a very bad childhood that I should worry about.

Are "let him go free to kill again" and "kill the bastard," right?

It must be simple to live in such a clear-cut, black and white world.

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because while I honestly have little objection to it in theory, there are major flaws in its current practice. I'm in agreement with the USSC decision of 72 which led to that moratorium. Particularly their discomfort with the "and unusual part" Which, as you are probably aware, had nothing to do with method of execution, but instead with how capital cases are pursued. Alas, despite my wishes, there is currently no moratorium. In light of that, and this may be a bit cynical upon my part, I'm not unduly saddened that the gentleman in question was executed rather than receiving a commutation of his original sentence. Perhaps he was a victim of his time?
I am not bloodthirsty nor do I possess quasi-religious fervor.
Which is the more barbaric and sadistic:
terminating a man's existence
or
locking him in a cage for decades?
Also, I do believe in prison reform. It is stupid to incarcerate someone under the present conditions and then expect them to "be good" upon release when they are given little or no resources. Patently stupid.

And...dude, it was more mordant (or at least sardonic) than snarky. Snarky...jeez

peace,
mitchum

If not, you have unknowinly made one of Shaw's arguments (in Major Barbara, if I recall correctly) about which is worse, locking a man in cage (and sentencing another man to watch him) or ending his life.

I also agree that a moratorium is a good idea, for the same reasons you mention.

although I read some of Shaw's work, I picked up a lot by osmosis :)

One of the things that I find confounding is whenever I pose that question to those who consider me to be a "bloodthirsty sadist", all I ever receive in response are...cricket chirps.
I may be a cynic, but I suspect that those suddenly silent ones, for the most part, have no problem with what they consider to be a brutal underclass (other prisoners and corrections officers) handling the miscreant. Everything is fine with them as long as executions don't occur "in their name"

I'm a major Shavian, and hate Tony Blair for having the nerve to belong to the New Fabians (let alone what he did to Labour), but I digress.

People who can't wrap their heads around that proposal can't - or won't - consider its implications about our current system, even without executions. While I'm not sure Shaw's idea is workable (he didn't think it was), some days it is very appealing: after so much, a person simply can't be forgiven or trusted any more, and with regret, must be removed. Permanently.

Believe me, they did the guy a favor. I have never witnessed anything so sad or excruciating in my life. :cry:

why can't i have this option for myself to be executed when i am terminally ill? it almost seems unfair

For God's sake, the State wouldn't want to put you out of your misery if you were depressed and feeling suicidal. A lot of psychiatric help would make you see the bright side of life, make you feel life is worth living, a reason to believe, and then give ya the lethal dose. :)

Kill someone for killing others. Old Testament Bullshit!

of the victim

That guy got off way better. I watched a man go out screaming in pain from lung cancer.

It was not a pretty sight. And she suffered immensely toward the end.

Lucky man. :sarcasm: