COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, May 31, 2014

If hanging, gassing or electrocution is wrong, then so is this:



Lockett’s execution was scheduled for 6pm. At 6:23, observers reported witnessing the administration of a sedative, with a doctor reporting that Lockett was fully sedated at 6:33. Sedation is critical in executions, as the three-drug cocktail used involves a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug that induces cardiac arrest. Without sedation, the process would be extremely painful and traumatic for the prisoner, who would suffocate to death while fully conscious.
When the second and third drugs were administered, however, Lockett was clearly alert and responsive to his surroundings, groaning and licking his lips. He reportedly tried to lift his head and was clearly in a state of physical distress. A prison official in the room said ‘something’s wrong,’ according to AP reporter Bailey Elise McBride, and the shutters between the execution chamber and the witnesses were closed. The witnesses waited for over 47 minutes for news, later learning that Lockett died of cardiac arrest at 7:06.
Some confusion initially obscured the cause of the problem – the drugs, or a blown vein. If it was the drugs, Oklahoma’s experimental drug cocktail would have been proved ineffective and dangerous, yet again. If it was a blown vein that prevented successful administration of the drugs, it was a testimony to the dangers of having inept, careless, and poorly-trained medical personnel in the execution chamber—a number of states don’t even require medical staff to be present at executions. The presence of a blown vein is easy to spot and correct and the physician present should have checked the intravenous line before administering the second and third drugs.
The grisly scene in the execution chamber horrified witnesses, and set off a firestorm of infuriated conversation. Death penalty opponents argue that execution itself is a form of cruel and unusual punishment, barred under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. Advocates have long maintained that lethal injection is a humane and effective way to conduct executions, dodging the issue of whether the state should be conducting retributive justice in the first place. As this and other recent botched executions illustrate, however, the death penalty is clearly not humane in any form.

44 comments:

  1. You have Public Defenders spending massive amounts of time working on "crimes" that shouldn't really be crimes - drug possession, etc.

    In the meantime, DNA evidence is showing that a large number of those on Death Row really Are innocent of the crimes that put them there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Define "large". I don't think so.

      If you are opposed on moral grounds, I can respect that. I will not be convinced that a dozen criminials, in toto, released in the course of a year is a large number relative to the prison population.

      Delete
    2. .

      One innocent put to death by the state should be considered unacceptably large.

      The technological advances we have seen in forensic science as well as examples we have seen of people mistakenly convicted of capital crimes has changed my views on capital punishment.

      What justification is possible for taking an innocent life?

      .

      Delete
    3. Do DNA testing as the matter of course, and give the jury a bit of credit for good judgment. See my stats below.

      Delete
  2. Word on the street as it that as in 90% of lethal injections he had not only dehydrated himself prior to his date with destiny he lacerated the likely sites of IV placement.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Firing squads work really well.

    We've only had one botched firing squad execution and that was back in the late 1800's.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or so I've read a couple times. Sounds reasonable enough.

      Certainly seems a lot cleaner somehow than hanging to me.

      Delete
  4. .

    While I might disagree with capital punishment, it has a long tradition and is still the law in about forty countries (mainly Asian and middle eastern countries as well as the US) although about half of those currently have a moratorium on it. So, in those countries that still execute prisoners, the means used to do the deed becomes a debatable point.

    I hear the stories of all these bizarre drug cocktails being used to execute people. I have no real medical knowledge so I'm kind of shooting from the hip but we hear of people dying daily of drug overdoses and hospice facilities that ease people into death using morphine and other drugs so wouldn't it be feasible to just keep increasing the morphine and let these people go out peacefully in the arms of a morphine high?

    Just asking.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Time for death to occur would vary according to doasage and physiology. A massive dose however, would cause death within less than an hour. Heroin would do the trick within minutes. Of course, heroin is illegal, which begs the question: can you hang a horse thief with a stolen rope?

      Delete
  5. .

    I see Deuce is now emphasizing the ...betraying them without remorse.aspect of the purpose of the site. One has to take note of the larger font and wonder if it says more about the "betrayed" or the "betrayer".

    It's a strange brew.

    The question is it this strange brew,

    Cream

    Or this strange brew,

    Bob and Doug

    .

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      I've said it before might as well say it again:

      "No one is more humorous or capable than Quirk when the buffalo chips are down"

      .


      .

      Delete
    2. One has to take note of the larger font and wonder if it says more about the “betrayed” or the “betrayer”.

      :) Thanks for pointing it out. writing and editing html is not my long suit. I use a MAC and did not bother to see how it presented on a PC. I believe is is corrected with font size 14 and eliminating one line of code.

      In either case, the sentiment remains unchanged.

      Delete
  6. http://www.topcriminaljusticedegrees.org/innocence/
    Since 1995, 18 men have been freed from death row through DNA testing.

    http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row-inmates-state-and-size-death-row-year
    3,219 people were awaiting execution in 1996.
    3,088 people were awaiting execution in 2013.

    On average, 3298 folks were death row inmates from 1996 – 2013, inclusive. Eighteen were freed. That is 0.54% were found innocent via DNA. It also means, on average, that 99.46%, or 3280 inmates, are where they should be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So, one innocent man per year has been released, on average, since 1996. Why isn't more DNA testing being done, 1/3298 prisoners have been proven innocent.

      "In 1999, Lockett kidnapped, beat, and shot nineteen-year-old Stephanie Neiman and ordered an accomplice to bury her while she was still breathing. She died from two wounds from a shotgun fired by Lockett. In 2000, he was convicted of murder, rape, forcible sodomy, kidnapping, assault and battery and sentenced to death."

      How long it took this monster to die is truly heartbreaking.

      Delete
    2. I agree with you. However, if we allow the state to torture and kill the worst of us, can we be confident that they will not do it to the best of us?

      Delete
  7. Yet, I would have no problem with families seeking revenge and beating them to death with a baseball bat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's an option and a safeguard against State tyranny.

      Turn them over to the families to deal with as they see fit.

      Delete
    2. Pretty sure my wife would like that idea.

      Delete
    3. Such atrocities try the moral scruples of us all. There will always be that passion to strike out in righteous indignation. It is sort of like 9/11: do we turn an entire country to glass as we vaporize its miscreant inhabitants or do we waste more than a decade hunting down the needles in countless haystacks? How I feel depends on the day, a sad commentary on my lack of moral inconsistency; but there you have it.

      Delete
    4. Family knows best ...


      A 25-year-old woman named Farzana Parveen was beaten to death earlier this week in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly by members of her own family angry that she married a man named Muhammad Iqbal rather than the groom they had chosen for her. Initial reports after the incident, like this one from Reuters, told a straightforward if appalling story:

      A 25-year-old woman was stoned to death by her family outside one of Pakistan's top courts on Tuesday in a so-called "honour" killing for marrying the man she loved, police said...

      Pakistani law allows a victim's family to forgive their killer.

      But in honour killings, most of the time the women's killers are her family, said Wasim Wagha of the Aurat Foundation. The law allows them to nominate someone to do the murder, then forgive him.


      Delete
  8. Deuce ☂Sat May 31, 08:38:00 AM EDT
    Flash banging babies. Dirty stinking bastards.

    Reply
    Replies

    allenSat May 31, 10:35:00 PM EDT
    Amen! Why not use napalm?

    There are days when one fully comprehends H. L. Mencken:
    "Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."

    ReplyDelete
  9. ...then there are days when ones hope in humanity is restored...

    “Robbie Knievel, son of legendary Evil Knievel, will attempt to jump over all members of Congress on a CAT D-9!”

    ReplyDelete
  10. A Million Ways to Die in the West -- a Film Review
    By Marion DS Dreyfus

    Starring Quirk as "Clinch"

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/05/a_million_ways_to_die_in_the_west__a_film_review.html

    Finally a movie with, truly, nothing to say: the very best kind.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Photo of Quirk as Clinch Leatherwood

      http://www.gosanangelo.com/photos/2014/may/27/122578/

      Delete
  11. A Million Ways to Die in the West

    http://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVvjCmopT5B8AOUAPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsa3ZzMnBvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw--?p=trailer+for+A+Million+Ways+to+Die+in+the+West&hspart=aztec&hsimp=yhs-default

    Quirk 'comes into his own' here in this movie as an actor cause he is, really, just being himself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dramatic entrance by Quirk Clinch Leartherwood at about 1:08

      Delete
  12. Why do the Fed economists keep getting future growth wrong?

    Fed Predictions - Chart

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cause they don't work in the private sector and their incomes aren't on the line?

      Delete
    2. The Federal Reserve is the private sector.

      You can't fix stupid

      Delete
  13. All the private sector guys have been getting it wrong, also.

    Oh, disregard the second chart; it's not germane.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because things are too complex to analyze?

      One does as well, or better, than the 'experts' by throwing darts at the Wall Street Journal stock pages.

      Proven in tests by the WSJ inself.

      Might as well sit back and watch a great movie, then.

      Delete
    2. Stock picking and economic analysis cannot be conflated

      You can't fix stupid

      Delete
    3. Anon is an idiot.

      Delete
  14. Yes, indeed, Anon, Anon is an idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I agree, I am an idiot, Anon and Anon.

    That's why I know you can't fix stupid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's done in bold, Anonymous ...

      You can't fix stupid

      Simple stuff, if you're not stupid.

      Delete
    2. HTML for Dummies, easy to read and understand.
      But for those that simply can't write in bold type, the answer is obvious ...

      You can't fix stupid

      Delete
  16. A deafening, dramatic proof of your genius, Anon !

    Idiot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not at all, Anonymous, it is just an illustration of the cognizant limitations of those that cannot write in bold letters.
      Of those that cannot comprehend simple instructions that can be found using the Google search engine.
      It says nothing about my capabilities, or limitations, it only confirms that ...

      You can't fix stupid

      Delete
  17. The Ghost of Ernest HemingwaySun Jun 01, 03:51:00 AM EDT

    Why should anyone care about you and your bold letters, Anon?

    Everyone can see immediately that you are a fool.

    >>“No. The two kinds of fools we have in Russia," Karkov grinned and began. "First there is the winter fool. The winter fool comes to the door of your house and he knocks loudly. You go to the door and you see him there and you have never seen him before. He is an impressive sight. He is a very big man and he has on high boots and a fur coat and a fur hat and he is all covered with snow. First he stamps his boots and snow falls from them. Then he takes off his fur coat and shakes it and more snow falls from them, Then he takes off his fur hat and knocks it against the door. More snow falls from his fur hat. Then he stamps his boots again and advances into the room. Then you look at him and you see he is a fool. That is the winter fool."

    "Now in the summer you see a fool going down the street and he is waving his arms and jerking his head from side to side and everybody from two hundred yards away can tell he is a fool. that is a summer fool. This economist is a winter fool.”<<


    ― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

    You are that Summer Fool, Anon-rat.

    ReplyDelete
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