The execution today in Ohio was a horror show.

[Warren Stupidity]

The state of Ohio executed a person today and it took something like 25 minutes for him to die. This execution was conducted using a previously untried mix of drugs, despite pleas from the condemned man's lawyers that the potential for a botched execution was very real.

This is who we are. This is the face of america, a society that is so convulsed and consumed with blood lust that it will brook no delays in its thirst for vengeance. From the daily gun culture carnage report, to the routine "collateral damage" slaughter of innocents in our endless and pointless global war on whatever, to our unseemly haste to engage in barbaric justice that the rest of the developed world has generally discarded, this is who we are.

Look in the mirror.

[JaneyVee]

1. The "prolife" crowd seems to love human torture & suffering.

[OnyxCollie]

3. Nothing screams "authority" like killing someone.

[JDPriestly]

11. Interesting. I had never thought of that. Could explain the inquisitions among other things.

[markpkessinger]

22. A friend of mine . . .

. . . a Roman Catholic priest in Brooklyn, once got himself in hot water with his bishop for reminding his congregation, in a homily, that the same pro-life stance that Church bases its anti-abortion stand likewise demands opposition to capital punishment. Some folks complained to the bishop about it (even though my friend was 100% correct on that point!

[sabrina 1]

25. The Catholic Church's stand on the DP is consistent with their pro-life position. All recent Popes

have spoken out against it. 'Getting' the Church itself on this issue won't work. Right Wingers claiming to be Catholic who are inconsistent re their supposed Pro-Life positions, are a different matter. Your friend would be better off pointing out to hypocrites, that the Church they claim to belong to opposes the DP. They probably don't know that.

[hrmjustin]

26. Bishop Daily?

[markpkessinger]

39. I believe it was Daly

This was quite a few years ago. The priest in question is a friend from childhood of our mutual friend and St. Luker, Mary O.

[hrmjustin]

47. Yeah Daily was a right winger.I left the RC in in 96 and joined St Luke's that same year.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Sigh, I thought that Ohio was part of the 21st Century and not a part of, say, Texas. nt.

[Bjorn Against]

4. The state as a whole may be 21st century, but their Governor is still stuck in the 13th century.

[Chorophyll]

5. Well stated.

For a "developed" nation, we are barbaric. You don't cure violence with more violence.

[Niceguy1]

32. I think that only

People who kill in prison should be excited, and maybe serial, 10+ , too.

Otherwise the inmates aren't worth the money or deserve the notoriety

[rhett o rick]

6. But, but, the more we make offenders suffer, the safer we feel.

Especially if they are a lower class minority. Georgie Bush didnt lose a wink of sleep as he denied all requests for clemency when he was governor. He figured that they were all low-lifes and didnt deserve Constitutional protections. Also, I think the power trip gave him a stiffy. (Ewwww I just threw up a little.)

[Art_from_Ark]

8. bu$h actually granted one request of clemency,

to convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.

[nobodyspecial]

7. Well, if you've read the threads here today

many did not mind this a bit.

[Hekate]

9. A beheading would have been quicker, though admittedly bloodier. Any veterinarian ...

... could have prescribed a lethal dose of whatever it is they use, no problem. What the hell is wrong with us anyway?

[delrem]

20. I think there's more than a little sadism in it, whatever the criminal did.

Even if someone were pro-death-penalty and if the death penalty were truly as is commonly said "to absolutely ensure they never have a chance to do it again", it's still the case that a hospital type procedure of morphine followed by general anesthesia, followed by stopping the heart, isn't impossible. Shouldn't be so far outside the ken of even eye-for-an-eye types that they have to come up with some gruesome "death cocktail" with all the rest of the gruesome "dead man walking" business, and "waiting for the last minute/second call from the debauched governor" business, with death cults who gather outside the prison to count down and cheer the moment, etc. The whole business of the death penalty seems to be a very medieval or even Roman decadent pleasure.

[GCP]

33. Exactly

I've sent a few beloved pets over the rainbow bridge and it's always been painless and instant. Why the hell can't they do that for the condemned?
AFAIC, the death penalty is all about vengeance, not justice.

[BarackTheVote]

35. I think mademoiselle guillotine would be far more humane than what we have now

Nobody knows the metaphysical horror that night be happening to someone subject to lethal injection. At least with mademoiselle guillotine, it's a quick and sure death, and while I believe that brain can live for a few seconds after decapitation, I doubt there would be much in the way of pain. The only thing that makes lethal injection better is the lack of blood, but that's a cold, sterile, heartless consideration, made more for constitution of the witnesses than for the victims.

That said, I'm 100% against the death penalty for any offence. Not just because I'd like (though often fail) to respect the basic humanity of every person, but also because, frankly, and to quote King Einon from Dragonheart, "death is a release not a punishment."

[morningfog]

38. The civilized world is refusing to sell the usual execution drugs to the US.

There are embargoes on the sell of certain chemicals to US prisons because we use them to kill. We are in a small minority of the developed world in our arcane practice.

[No Vested Interest]

10. I seldom agree with you, Warren, but I - an Ohioan- agree strongly on this one.

The executed man's daughter was in attendance and uttered "Oh God" as he snorted, like in a snore, during the period the drugs took to work.

[Rex]

12. It seems watching the human body desperately try and survive is disturbing

when we know it has been given a death cocktail. It should be disturbing regardless of if you support the death penalty or not.

[cinnabonbon]

37. Even more so if it is a family member. nt

[Rex]

40. Yes, even more so that was completely unnecessary for his family to see.

nt.

[cinnabonbon]

42. Agreed. They had done nothing to deserve that. nt

[MADem]

13. I heard it took fifteen, but even that's too long. Makes beheading seem humane, as I said in

another thread.

This isn't "the face of America," though. It's the face of one state in America that tried a new drug with disastrous results.

I live in a state that doesn't have the Death Penalty. Many others do, too.

USA executes something under fifty people a year (39 last year) and the number keeps going down as people just don't want any part of it.

If Texas and Ohio would get out of the killing business, they're a good part of the total.


China, by contrast, executes something like 2,000.

Yeah, what they did to this murdering rapist of a woman with a 30 week pregnancy was horrific, but it's done. He's dead. Maybe they've learned something from this failed experiment, and that murdering asshole's life wasn't a complete waste.

I feel sorry for his family who had to witness that, and I feel sorry for the family of his victim, who no doubt miss their loved one very much. I'm having a hard time mustering an overwhelming amount of sympathy for the murderer, though, if it were up to me, I'd simply keep him incarcerated. He's not someone who could have been rehabilitated, I don't think.

[sabrina 1]

27. China has three times our population. I wonder why people trying to excuse our participation in this

barbaric, medieval practice always compare us to non Democratic nations. WE are the ONLY democratic nation claiming to be 'civilized' which still engages in this abhorrent practice.

It is true that support for it is diminishing thankfully.

[MADem]

30. If they were executing at our rate, they would have executed 117, then, not 2,000.

Or more--2,000 is a conservative estimate.

The point I made before and I'll make again is that we, as a nation, are not united on the utility or efficacy of this practice. They don't kill people in my state for crimes against persons. 18 states prohibit the practice absolutely. Most states don't kill people. It's TX and Ohio that do the bulk of the killing (see the links in my other post). OK and FL go at it with vigor every now and again, too. The 39 executions that took place last year happened in just nine states, and 16 were in (yee haw) TX.

A lot of states hang on to the option 'just in case'-- to get rid of particularly heinous criminals, of the type that torture babies, for example. Many of the states that have retained their DP laws on the books haven't used the option in years.

The USG kills the odd person here and there, but that's a rarity, too.

Right now there are twenty three or so people scheduled for executions in 2014. Some have received stays, others are likely to get them. All of this data is in the links I provided elsewhere.

The trend is away from DP, not towards it--and that's a good thing. It's likely to "fall away" gradually (e.g. New Mexico, CT, and MD have recently dumped the DP). TX and OH and OK and FL will probably be harder sells, but as they turn blue they'll probably diminish the number of executions and eventually get rid of the practice.

[WillyT]

14. K & R !!! - Thank You For That !!!

[1000words]

15. To think, we fancy ourselves a beacon of righteousness.

There is a familiar barbarism to "American exceptionalism."

[Whisp]

16. Mengele would be proud.

[cprise]

17. There you have it

The so-called criminal justice system has internalized a lust for punishment. I believe the term they themselves would use is "wanton".

[awoke_in_2003]

18. I am ashamed to be a buckeye...

I am ashamed to be an American.

[TroglodyteScholar]

19. Every execution is a horror show n/t

[indivisibleman]

21. completely agree

It troubles me time and time again when friends of mine state things like, "we should skin that pedophile alive" or "that person should spend the rest of his live being tortured." And on and on it goes.
End the death penalty and let us as a people become a more humane and sane society.... please.

[colsohlibgal]

23. Time To End Capital Punishment

The State should not be in the business of murder. Yes, this was an awful heinous crime and the man who did it must pay dearly for it. But imagine spending the whole rest of your life locked up, that is paying dearly in my view. Plus - if it's found out that someone was really innocent, they aren't already dead.

There is no doubt more than a few innocent people have been executed and that is a complete tragedy and travesty.

[nikto]

24. Unless we start executing a few provably criminal, murderous Corporations...

Then the death penalty should be abolished.

[WillyT]

29. Check Out The Morning Crew's Take...

DULink: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024341148

[Lint Head]

31. Barbarism makes our pretense of sophistication laughable.

[jsr]

34. Ohio Attorney General: "You're not entitled to a pain-free execution"

Disgusting comment.

[cinnabonbon]

43. he really said that? What a toxic excuse for a human being. nt

[No Vested Interest]

48. I believe it was an Assistant Atty. General, not DeWine. nt

[cinnabonbon]

52. thanks for the clarification. nt

[CFLDem]

36. We make the DP way too complicated

Either life in prison with hard labor, or another idea that gets the job done that George Carlin explains best:

http://m.

[aikoaiko]

41. Have we ever been any different?

[PeteSelman]

44. Hanging, firing squad or headsman are all pretty much instant.

They only went to these goofy drugs because everyone complained about the inhumanity of other methods.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

45. It's okay, though, because the moment the man finally died....

....his victim magically came back to life, and justice was truly served.

That's what happens with the death penalty? Right?

No?

Then why the fuck do people insist the death penalty is "justice"?

[spanone]

46. k&r...

[KamaAina]

49. They all are.

This one just had better special effects.

[Warren Stupidity]

50. 25 minutes of struggling to breathe.

I agree they all are. The fact that this guy's lawyers predicted exactly what was going to happen, were ignored, and then, it happened, is just staggering.

[harun]

54. The family is now going to sue the state. Their case looks strong.

[Warren Stupidity]

55. His lawyers presented expert testimony before the execution that this is exactly what would happen.

[Doctor_J]

51. Well, besides torture and the occasional execution of innocents, what's the problem?

Here's hoping Kasich contracts colon cancer and finds himself immune to pain meds.

[RoccoR5955]

53. Why do we kill people, who kill people, to show people, that killing people is wrong?

I often wonder.
Aren't we resorting to the same sort of tactic when the government takes a person's life?
Is it even constitutional, after all, doesn't the constitution guarantee "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?"

I don't know. It kind of makes me feel disgusted being an American citizen.