A botched execution using a disputed new drug combination left an Oklahoma inmate writhing and clenching his teeth on the gurney on Tuesday, leading prison officials to halt the proceedings before the inmate’s eventual death from a heart attack.
Clayton Lockett, 38, was declared unconscious 10 minutes after the first of the state’s new three-drug combination was administered. Three minutes later, though, he began breathing heavily, writhing on the gurney, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow.
Shame on us as a society for allowing this to happen. There has always been the option of not executing people no matter how horrible their crimes.
But torture is part of the whole “christian” paradigm. Sarah Palin said so.
The comment thread for the Reuters piece on this today is mostly a giant pile-on by trolls who seemed to be of a mind that that it would be better to have rescuscitated the guy and killed him over again, maybe three of four times. (In fact, Reuters in general seems to have been heavily targeted by trollfucks lately.) Clearly there are those who seriously get their rocks off over the mere thought of someone else suffering and dying, and manage to rationalize that in the process they’re helping make the world a better place.
Lockett is a poster boy for “horrible crimes.” He kidnapped his victim, wounded her, then buried her alive. I’ll shed no crocodile tears for this monster.
I think the death penalty is overused, but I think criminals who commit horrible crimes should be executed, simply because they’ve got it coming and any lesser punishment is inadequate for their crimes.
The problem is finding a humane way to do it. They should have just shot him. There’s too much that can go wrong with other execution methods. All of the execution methods traditionally used by American jurisdictions are problematical in this respect. Shooting is quick and foolproof, compared to those other methods. I’m not sure that’s why China uses it, but it’s what China uses.
It is said that revenge is sweet but in the long run it would be better if the State would set an example and not kill people but rather take them out of circulation for the rest of their lives through prison without the possibility of parole. Otherwise our values are no better than those of the common murderer.
Of course, this would mean putting an end to aggressive U.S. wars too and that’s not likely to happen any time soon.
For sub-human monsters like Lockett, a humane death isn’t deserved.
@5 We don’t give them humane deaths because of what they are. We give them humane deaths because of what we are. And so we don’t turn into them.
I think it would be cheaper in the long run to just have life in prison without parole. Then the death penalty wouldn’t be an issue.
You want to kill a guy with drugs?
OD him on heroin. Proven track record and pain free. And most states have a ready supply in their evidence rooms.
Torture give you a hard-on, does it?