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The End of Lethal Injection?

Florida death row inmate Angel Nieves Diaz was pronounced dead at 6:36 pm on Wednesday evening — 34 minutes after the first needle carrying the standard lethal injection chemicals designed to kill him was inserted into his arm. The procedure took twice as long as usual and required a rare double dose of the toxic cocktail. The needles, which were supposed to be inserted directly into Diaz’s veins, tore through his veins and went into the inner tissue of his arms. One reporter who witnessed the execution observed Diaz shuddering, licking his lips, blowing, and grimacing as he lay strapped onto the gurney. In the end, his lifeless body was marred with two grisly reminders of the ordeal — 12 and 11 inch burns on his arms.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who has overseen over 20 executions while presiding over the state that ranks fifth highest in number of people killed, responded to Diaz’s bungled execution by calling for a moratorium on all executions in Florida until a commission is able to report its findings on March 1. And it's about time. This isn't the first botched execution in Florida’s history — two inmates' heads caught fire while being put to death in the electric chair in the 1990's. It also isn't the first time that an execution has lasted longer than it should. It took Crips founder-turned-Nobel Peace Prize nominee Tookie Williams 36 minutes to die in December of 2005. You can learn more about his execution, and the vigils and demonstrations that accompanied it, here.

Jeb Bush's decision is just one of the recent developments in the debate over lethal injection, which intensified in February when the execution of California inmate Michael Morales was put on hold pending further investigation into whether the condemned suffer unconstitutionally painful deaths. Also today, in a move that is arguably more monumental than Florida's moratorium, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled in the Morales case that California's method of lethal injection is unconstitutional because it classifies as cruel and unusual punishment.

So is this the end of lethal injection in the United States? Ty Alper, visiting professor at UC Berkeley Boalt Law School’s death penalty clinic, called today's events "indications of the further scrutiny that lethal injection is getting nationwide." He said, "No longer can we continue to pretend that lethal injection is painless and humane. In fact, to the contrary, it now appears that we have been torturing at least some inmates as we put them to death. At this point, we can hope that officials in both states will take these events seriously and either come up with a way to execute people humanely or abandon the enterprise altogether."

History lesson: Lethal injection was first adopted by the state of Oklahoma after local legislator Bill Wiseman introduced it as an alternative to electrocution. Thirty-seven of the 38 death-penalty states now use it as their main method of execution. Courtesy of Mother Jones, you can read or listen to why Bill Wiseman regrets promoting lethal injection and is now an Episcopal priest who advocates against the death penalty.

-- Celia Perry

Comments

In Europe we don't have the death penalty. It was the Wilson government back in the 60's that did away with hanging in the UK. France got rid of the Guillotine more recently, but still a long time ago. The Gullotine and hanging were quick and painless methods of killing, far more efficient and humane than the electric chair that literally boils a man alive, and apparently far more quick and painless than lethal injection. There are people here in Europe who wish to restore the death penalty for murder partly on the grounds that it is an effective deterrent. Yet the US, still with the death penalty, has a murder rate ten - twenty? - times that of European countries, none of which have the death penalty. More people are murdered in Metropolitan New York in one year than died in thirty years of the troubles in Northern Ireland. Capital punishment a deterrent? Some deterrent. Angel Diaz apparently spent thirty years on death row before being finally executed. So seemingly, in America, a condemned murderer is expected to do a life term and then suffer execution at the end. This is not the justice system of a civilised nation. It is savage and barbaric.

Posted by: mike on 12/16/06 at 12:20 PM

The question of whether the death penalty is appropriate doesn't revolve around the procedure itself, nor is the "need" for the ultimate penalty what's at issue here; the heart of the matter is that when the government is the lawbreaker it breeds contempt for the law.
How can the government "teach" criminality by its example, and then turn around and demand the death penalty when its best students follow suit...?
For example, according to Amnesty International the use of the death penalty for child offenders, people under eighteen, is clearly prohibited under international law, yet the good ol' USA carried out 19 such executions--more than any other country. Is this really some kind of modern social science; it's more like the resurrection of Adolf--all because chaos is what's called for when the government can't properly govern the govered...? Meanwhile who's making a fortune off crime? The companies that work hand in glove with the parole officers?, to exploite "the losers...?"
Personally I think an eye for an eye is the way to go--it's what makes the most sense (to me), and in a society that isn't "topsy turvy" (plus there's always the question of whether the death penalty will still be in use after a person has spent a decade on death row) wouldn't it be a deterrent?
But first you've got to put an end to practices such as allowing employers to subject their employees to cancer causing and reproduction harming chemicals without any proper protective gear...
Oh sure, certainly we're reaping what we sow... Treat people humanely and only then is it time to start thinking about degrees of proven guilt..., and implementation...
For instance instead of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt the standard for putting someone to death should be guilty beyond all possible doubt...

Posted by: Michael L. Wagner on 12/16/06 at 1:02 PM

Whatever you feel about state-sponsored executions, you gotta wonder why it's so much easier and more "humane" to put an unwanted dog to sleep than an unwanted human.

Posted by: John on 12/18/06 at 10:19 AM