There is a stock market thread, why not one for the highest Judicial Instiution in the land?

Anyway, lethal injection is up today:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/07/lethal.injection.ap/index.html

Quote :

"The justices are hearing arguments Monday morning in a case that challenges Kentucky's method of executing prisoners using a three-drug cocktail. Three dozen states use similar procedures. The court's decision to step into the case has brought about a halt in executions that is likely to last at least until the summer. Kentucky, backed by the Bush administration, says it works hard to execute inmates humanely, countering claims that its procedure violates the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Watch how lethal injection works » Recent executions in Florida and Ohio, however, took much longer than usual, with strong indications that the prisoners suffered severe pain in the process. Workers had trouble inserting the IV lines that are used to deliver the drugs."

Thoughts?

1/7/2008 10:27:57 AM

I think the court will probably sidestep this issue but do it in a way that executions will continue. I can't see them continuing the moratorium for much longer.

1/7/2008 10:29:48 AM

nah, they'll come back and say that the only viable methods now are hanging and firing squad

1/7/2008 6:20:10 PM

how hard can it be to kill someone clean and painless in a controlled environment?

1/7/2008 6:45:28 PM

pretty fucking hard, really. I mean, think about it... You are trying to kill someone who otherwise is a physically healthy human being. Few mechanisms of death are painless, as they all, by definition, are trying to shut down a perfectly functioning human body.

I think the real question is what is necessarily "cruel and unusual" ... We all understand what it means generically, but no one can really say what it allows/disallows. And I don't know if that's good or bad.

1/7/2008 6:51:20 PM

nothing unusual if you do it often enough.... and it says and, not or...

1/8/2008 8:37:53 AM

I always thought we should just let the person OD from Morphine, under the impression that the person would get high, happy and pass out before death set in.

I think they could use a better drug combination.

1/8/2008 12:28:51 PM

Quote :

"pretty fucking hard, really. I mean, think about it... You are trying to kill someone who otherwise is a physically healthy human being. Few mechanisms of death are painless, as they all, by definition, are trying to shut down a perfectly functioning human body."

And now, compound this by the fact that most individuals with medical training will also refuse to perform the execution or participate in any way.

Frankly, I find it odd that we can manage to euthanize animals without obvious pain (and we're at least lead to believe in painless fashion), but we can't manage to do that with humans. In fact, from what I understand, the process is quite painful, but the cocktail injected includes a paralytic - which means there's no screaming.

Again, though. You're dealing with a medical procedure which almost no doctor is willing to participate in. That's half your problem. (Another spur thought though is why we can't simply inject a lethal dose of morphine and let the body shut itself down that way, but, again... whatever.)

1/8/2008 2:32:22 PM

So apparently Reason's blog has a good post on the topic, specifically addressing the issues raised in this thread - in particular, about the motivation behind the choice of the three-drug cocktail.

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124289.html

In particular, the choice has less to do about the "humaneness" to the prisoner as it is about the "humaneness" to the observers.

Or, as the Futurama reference goes:

Quote :

"Mayor : Ahh, good ol' maggie! When I pull the switch, these powerfull electromagnets will tear you limb from limb. In the most humane possible manner. Bender: But Mr. Mayor! That doesn't sound humane! Mayor : It is for the witnesses. Because it is not boring!"

1/8/2008 7:33:14 PM