And the world record for "most botched execution" goes to...

[Tellos Athenaios]

... Arizona.

Seriously, though, a few questions:

• Why on earth is prison officials concocting their particular home brew of chemicals considered a fine and dandy idea? Which is what they're really doing, now that companies vote with their wallet by not selling to prisons anymore.
• Why is there no proper testing? With the gas chamber you used to at least test the thing for leaks regularly so it would be effective; but as far as I am aware the patients are really also the guinea pigs. Moreover it does not appear adequate data is obtained from these live tests. At least the Japanese had the saving grace of properly documenting their findings.
• Where is our cynical doctor when you need him?

This mess kinda underscores the arguments against the death penalty, doesn't it? Especially those of the "even if your justice system were perfect (ha, as if) the death penalty is still an exceedingly bad idea from a practical standpoint" variety.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

The whole thing was.....poorly executed.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Punning aside, the death penalty is not necessary for public protection.

If you insist on doing so, the guillotine, long-drop hanging, and multiple live-round firing squads really do outstrip the others for brevity of suffering.

[Fisherking]

I think the problem was that you just can’t get good poison any more.

Actually there was something about the European pharmaceutical firms unwilling to sell them products for executions.

There was another prisoner scheduled for execution a few hours after this guy. They gave him a stay of two weeks while they fix the problem.

On a note of grim humor however, you might call it karma for this dude.

Did you look at what he had been convicted of? I would think burial alive would cause a bit of suffering and emotional distress too.

[Fragony]

The method being flawed doesn't say anything about the sentence itselve. Not going to take a position in it but if it HAS to be done and I would have to be subject to it I would prefer being executed the Saudi way, head-> bye. As for the penalty itself, I think it should be an option that must be very carefully used. But some just deserve it, take that Breivik guy, how does he not deserve anything else. He probably wants it anyway, kill that thing.

[HoreTore]

But some just deserve it, take that Breivik guy, how does he not deserve anything else.

Fortunately, we're a bit more civilized up here....

Anyway, why the Saudi's? Robespierre is the gold standard of executions.

[drone]

They should just use nitrogen and be done with it. If it's acceptable to dope up the condemned with opiates, why not the narcosis high from nitrogen?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Punning aside, the death penalty is not necessary for public protection.

If you insist on doing so, the guillotine, long-drop hanging, and multiple live-round firing squads really do outstrip the others for brevity of suffering.

Killing someone is terrible - lethal injection is couched as a medical procedure, it's their to make it nicer for the state, not the sentenced.

Poleaxe or go home.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Didn't I just say in another thread those people were not civilized? Arizona is not civilized. I expect all of you to go back and thank that post of mine.

[rvg]

They should have just hanged that guy. Cheap, efficient, reliable. Nice and snappy.

[Sp4]

What happened? The fuse blew out? The gas valve was stuck?

[rvg]

What happened? The fuse blew out? The gas valve was stuck?

Some Einstein decided to get creative with the drug cocktail. As a result, the perp spent almost two hours entertaining the spectators before finally expiring.

[Sp4]

There are those who say that that should be the right and only way to do it (not that I agree with it). I would have thought that after years of doing this, they have some sort of chemical cocktail down that has to be used and nothing else is permitted.

[Sir Moody]

There are those who say that that should be the right and only way to do it (not that I agree with it). I would have thought that after years of doing this, they have some sort of chemical cocktail down that has to be used and nothing else is permitted.

they did - several actually - they were highly effective - thankfully the EU stepped in and threatened European companies who were supplying part of the chemical cocktail with prosecution - the European companies thus stopped supplying the drugs and now the US states which practice execution have a shortage of the drugs they need - leading them to experiment with other more available cocktails - which leads us right here...

honestly as others have said there are far better methods that are tried and tested and don't require ANY drugs - Long drop hanging and the Guillotine are by far the best alternative... I am not sure why they are so determined to keep using lethal injection...

[Greyblades]

Personally I'm surprised they aren't still using the electric chair.

[Husar]

But only if they use more power, enough that there would be a lightning arc between the poles even if noone were sitting in the chair.
Or they could just throw them off a cliff or chain their legs to an iron ball and throw them into the ocean. All of that would be rather guaranteed death and usually shorter than 5 minutes I suppose.

Why is it so hard for the government to kill people?

[Greyblades]

Sadism maybe? "Kill 'em slow, that'll teach them!"

[Tellos Athenaios]

Personally I'm surprised they aren't still using the electric chair.

Oh but they are.

[Ironside]

honestly as others have said there are far better methods that are tried and tested and don't require ANY drugs - Long drop hanging and the Guillotine are by far the best alternative... I am not sure why they are so determined to keep using lethal injection...

They can't have the death look like someone died. So no messy death.

[a completely inoffensive name]

No point in having the death penalty anymore. Justice is not about bloodlust. It's a waste of money anyway because lawyers seem to get paid by the appeal nowadays.

[Fragony]

Fortunately, we're a bit more civilized up here....

Probably the worst thing that ever happened to that bastard. Humiliation complete.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

It is more expensive, on average, to house a prisoner for life than to execute them. I agree that the death penalty, of itself, is no longer necessary to protect society. If the death penalty truly were a deterrent, that might be one thing, but history shows us that that is not the case.

[Ironside]

It is more expensive, on average, to house a prisoner for life than to execute them.

Not true in the US. The exceptionality of the punishment drives up the costs. More appeals, higher trial costs and death row are more expensive than for life in prison.

[HopAlongBunny]

If the criminal justice system is a method of providing a criminal class, and perhaps ad-hoc control of the size/demands of the labour pool; the death penalty makes perfect sense.
Beyond the number necessary for a class to provide services to the elite, the remainder is simply dead weight. Where the economy cannot provide jobs to a sector of the labour pool, the excess is redundant and possibly problematic.
The option to simply eliminate the excess is convenient and much more direct. As wealth becomes more concentrated, a greater proportion of the population becomes unnecessary; the policy of elimination wears the mantle of "right" and morality.

[HopAlongBunny]

Further to the above, would be the observation that as society "mainstreams" the mentally-ill, the prison population grows.
De-institutionalizing (at least some classes) of the mentally ill simply transfers the care of those individuals to a different place of confinement.
The only real change is which pocket government largess ultimately ends up in.
The expense of the death penalty, and its failure as a deterrent allow for perpetual enrichment of those involved in the process.

[a completely inoffensive name]

I don't want to people to walk away from this thread thinking that Arizona is some how representative of US justice systems becoming institutionalized producers of a criminal class. When I say Arizona is a bunch of savages, I really mean to say, Arizona is a bunch of savages.

They elected this man six times. Investigations by the DOJ and FBI, ignored rape crimes, re-instituted chain gangs, noted as having "the worst history of racial profiling in US history" by the DOJ. And the people of Arizona just keep voting him in.

What do you expect from a state that sold off its own capitol buildings? Sorry citizens, forgot to pay the landlord this month, no government until September.

[Papewaio]

Treat the prisoners like the rest of the population.






Feed them corn derived fructose until they die of obesity.

[rory_20_uk]

Thousands of times a day around the world, people have proceedured done to them that would be excruciating without removing conciousness. Limbs and organs are removed - and almost all wake up with no memory of the pain. We've been doing this for almost 100 years now and we're getting better at it - so good no one even asks the question of whether the persons feel pain during the event.

And yet... it seems impossible to do the same thing with the only addition bieng the person doesn't wake up the other side reliably.

How can this be so? Knock them out, then hang 'em, shoot 'em, dismember 'em or lop their heads off. Perhaps leaving it to persons who usually work in prisons is the problem here.

[rory_20_uk]

Further to the above, would be the observation that as society "mainstreams" the mentally-ill, the prison population grows.
De-institutionalizing (at least some classes) of the mentally ill simply transfers the care of those individuals to a different place of confinement.

What is mental illness and what is not is no more than a line in the sand - being homosexual used to be a mental illness, and now is not. Sociopathy is not a mental illness, but being a psychopath is. Paedophilia seems to be viewed as not a mental illness as I imagine society rather would lock them up than just treat them with realistic dolls or whatever.

[Kadagar_AV]

Fun fact of the day:

The last US execution by firing squad took place in 2010.

Uncivilized, if you ask me.