Florida Supreme Court Halts Execution Over Lethal Injection Drug Questions

[cal04]

Source: Huffington Post

The Florida Supreme Court stopped Thursday's scheduled execution of a convicted killer amid questions over whether the state's lethal injection drugs constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

The state high court on Tuesday evening ordered a stay of execution for Jerry William Correll, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a case questioning the constitutionality of Oklahoma's similar lethal injection drug cocktail. Correll, 59, has been on Florida's death row since 1986, after he was convicted of stabbing to death his ex-wife, Susan, their 5-year-old daughter and two of his in-laws.

"Because the lethal injection protocol under review in the Supreme Court is virtually identical to the Florida three-drug lethal injection protocol, a stay of execution in this case is appropriate," Florida Justice Jorge Labarga wrote in the majority 5-2 decision Tuesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court in January agreed to hear a case brought by Oklahoma
death row inmate Richard Glossip challenging the constitutionality of the state's use of midazolam hydrochloride in its three-drug lethal injection protocol. The court stayed executions for Glossip and two other Oklahoma killers while it considers the case.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/17/jerry-correll-florida-execution-stay_n_6702212.html?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

[lastlib]

1. It would solve the whole problem if we would just END this barbarism.

Capital punishment makes us little better than ISIS.

[csziggy]

2. Death penalty is not an effective deterrent, either

Because of the efforts to make sure we don't execute innocent people - which is still not guaranteed - it is expensive and takes too long to get to the end of the process. Which adds another layer of cruel and unusual punishment, in my opinion.

I used to be in favor of the death penalty but have realized that it is not the way to deal with murderers. The worst need to be locked up forever to protect society. Some may be capable of reformation. The death penalty should be abolished.

[samsingh]

5. monsters like manson are given a lot of amenities in prison

i believe he may be getting married.

what do you victims get?

[csziggy]

6. So do you advocate we become monsters like the murderers?

Because that is what pushing for the death penalty makes us as a society.

For years our society pretended that we were using "humane" methods of killing convicted killers - but we deceived ourselves. Hanging, firing squads, electric chairs, lethal injections have all been proven to be cruel ways to dispose of people we don't want in our world and thereby diminish us.

Punishment has always been separated from reparations - and reparations are not the intention and have never been the goal of "justice."

If you believe in the law of retaliation - "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" - think of this: In Fiddler on the Roof, the protagonist, Tevye, replies to the phrase with "Very good. That way the whole world will be blind and toothless."

Christians on the other hand should remember the Sermon on the Mount in which Christ said, "You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."

As an agnostic I believe there are people who should be locked up forever to protect society. But rather than waste money on protracted legal battles over when and how to kill those few, lock them up and use the money to help the victims, rehabilitate those who have a chance to live in society, and to improve the futures of those who are at risk of committing crimes.

[samsingh]

8. we don't become monsters by executing the likes of manson

but we do become monsters by letting murderers kill innocent people, by forgetting the horrors victims faced.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

7. Do you actually know anything about prison?

Because contrary to what you are trying to tell us, it's a pretty dismal lifestyle.

I mean, for example, just think of anything in your normal day that gives you the slightest amount of pleasure--driving a car, going to a restaurant, putting on the clothes of your own choosing, taking a shower or a dump in complete privacy--and chances are, that's not going to be available to you in prison.

Not saying that some people don't deserve such a depravation. The aforementioned Charles Manson, for example. But let's not play stupid and think that convicted murderers are coddled simply because they get life in prison instead of the death penalty.

[samsingh]

9. it's better than what their victims endured

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. Well, you can't bring them back to life.

So there's no true justice anyways.

Sticking them in prison for the rest of their natural lives works for me.

[samsingh]

11. if you could bring them back to life, we wouldn't have

to have as harsh punishment.


we should demonstrate our commitment to support victims, not their murderers

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. How is killing someone demonstrating support for victims.....

....any moreso than locking them up for the rest of their lives?

I just don't get that.

[In_The_Wind]

3. I agree!

[samsingh]

4. not in any way. we show concern for victims

by penalizing the criminals.

this monster stabbed a woman, a 5 year old, and 2 other people. i support capital punishment in this instance.

[lastlib]

13. What makes you think that life imprisonment is "not penalizing" the criminals?

Okay, I don't like this guy any better than you do. But killing him just to satisfy your (or someone else's) bloodlust doesn't do our society any good.

[samsingh]

14. justice is not bloodlust

I don't think life in prison is adequate for murderers

[Tommy_Carcetti]

15. All murderers, or just a select few?

And if not all, what determines your arbitrary line where Convicted Murderer A deserves the death penalty and Convicted Murderer B doesn't?