American researchers have called for an halt to lethal injection, the most common method of capital punishment in the United States, because it is not always a humane and painless way to die.
Some executed prisoners may have suffered unnecessarily because they had not been sedated properly, they said.
The current way inmates are given lethal injections does not even meet veterinary standards for putting down animals, they added.
Here’s the quote from the home page of the Lancet, one of the best known science journals (yeah, the kind of people who “believe” in evolution, what else can you expect from these libruls):
959 people have been executed in the USA by lethal injection since 1976. Anaesthesia during lethal injection is essential to minimise suffering and to maintain public acceptance of the practice. Leonidas Koniaris and colleagues report in a Research Letter how executioners often have no anaesthesia training. Analysis of post-mortem reports showed that 43 of 49 executed prisoners had blood thiopental concentrations lower than that required for surgery. An Editorial comments: “Capital punishment is not only an atrocity, but also a stain on the record of the world’s most powerful democracy. Doctors should not be in the job of killing. Those who do participate in this barbaric act are shameful examples of how a profession has allowed its values to be corrupted by state violence.”
(Registration is free but currently unavailable, so I am unable to provide more detailed quotes. If anyone has access and can send me the linked documents, I’ll update the story accordingly)
Death penalty has been extensively debated. It’s often used as an argument to show how “civilised” Europe is and how the USA are not, but the fact is that a lot of people are ambivalent and can find circumstances when it would seem to be an appropriate punishment (I am not of that position, but I understand the arguments).
What is clearly unacceptable is the way it is done with a worryingly high frequency in the USA, with the following ghastly stories heard over and over again:
- the accused who do not benefit from the most basic legal defense;
- cases where elements casting strong doubts on the guilt of the accused are dismissed or ignored for no aparent reason;
- the striking racial profile of those sentenced to death, with a much higher rate of sentencing, all things being equal, for blacks;
- of course, all the high profile cases when people were found innocent after DNA tests or other similar tests were made, often long after the sentence had been passed on them.
And now this new information that the actual executions are unncessarility cruel.
Read that again:
But in their analysis of protocols followed during lethal injections in Texas and Virginia, where 45 percent of executions in the United States are conducted, they found there was no monitoring of the anesthesia.
Emergency medical technicians who administered the drugs had no training in anesthesia and there were no reviews after the executions.
When the researchers examined data from autopsies done following 49 executions in Arizona, Georgia and North and South Carolina, they found concentrations of the drug in the blood in 43 cases were lower than that needed for surgery.
Twenty-one prisoners had drug levels that were consistent with awareness.
There seems to be a form of revelling in cruel behavior amongst some portions of the American public, and this streak has also been visible in the conduct of Bushco’s foreign policy and its surprising (to most of the population of the world and to most decent people on sites like this one) popularity: “let’s nuke the bastards”, “they (the Ay-rabs) deserve what they get”, etc…
So it’s not surprising, but it is hard to reconcile with the values that are supposed to be defended by this behavior, i.e. the rule of law, the highest moral norms.
Doesn’t morality apply in the behavior towards prisoners (even if sentenced for despicable crimes) or towards the other people of the world? Are they not human and deserving of the same rights as “normal” Americans?
over at Kos for your kind attention. But do comment here!
I think you have to view it in the context of what the death penalty in the US is.
It is more akin to an ancient human sacrifice ritual than anything to do with legalities.
A crime is committed. Someone must be punished. It is not necessary to punish the exact person who committed the crime, however it is necessary that the public be assured that someone has been exterminated, someone who represents the public’s notion of the most likely perpetrator. That’s usually an African-American male with little or no financial resources.
In a bizarre anthropological twist, he has replaced the unblemished virgin as the sacrifice of choice in American culture. He is exterminated, the crime god is appeased, and the people are happy.
I have to disagree with the lancet on the subject of public acceptance. A truly painless execution would not be accepted. If it were discovered that the victims were being anesthetized, I think you would see quite significant outcry.
Antonin Scalia
link
The most painfree method of execution is without doubt hanging by long drop, which instantly breaks the neck causing immediate loss of consciousness. It is also far quicker than lethal injection. While the latter often takes 30-40 minutes, the record for long drop hanging is 7 seconds – this being the time elapsed from the legendary British hangman Albert Pierrepoint entered the cell of his clients to death was pronounced.
But though its long drop variant actually is as humane as executions can be, hanging has a medieval air about it that is bound to fascinate the bloodthirsty. And the latter being pig-ignorant rednecks, they can be counted on to push this through if led to believe it is their idea, and if ‘libruls’ react with feigned revulsion.
Now, who sends DeLay the anonymous memo?
I mean, Scalia?
Procedures are more important than facts?
All of the crazy things coming out of your country in these past few years, this is actually one that does manage to shock me, and i count myself as fairly placid in general and accustomed now to these whoppers.
whoa.
about the supposedly “humane” lethal injections and am pleased the Lancet finally published a study. It will of course be ignored, as their work on Iraqi civilian casualties was… damn liberals.
But what truly gets me is all the “moral values” nut jobs who were hyperventilating about Schaivo give not one damn about cruelty when it comes to those on death row… yeah Jesus would have totally been on board with the death penalty and especially lethal injection, it’s just so neat & clean.
Sometimes I think America is split up into those who have read the New Testament and those who have not.
I know that is too simplistic, but it seems like those that have read it tend to see Jesus as more compassionate than those who have not.
You are correct that I have read the NT. I was raised (nominally – my mom was anti-religious, but my Ukranian Orthodox grandparents were very active in the Church) with nightly prayers and a really wonderful children’s Bible… Old & New Testaments. I devoured it because the stories were so compelling. I never actually believed I don’t think at any point, the hypocrisy of organized religion got me at a young age (so… one of the 10 commandments says you shalt not worship false idols… ummm… tell me again which one of these artists actually met God to paint this wonderful rendition in gold…), but Jesus’ teachings always resonated as just sound practice for compassionate humanism.
I don’t know how anyone can say they read the Bible & follow Jesus if they can’t grasp the basics of what his message was… I have never been in a church in the South or Midwest – do they censor those parts??
It’s a very complicated issue.
To keep it superficial…
There are two major themes running through the NT. One, which is kind of lost today, is a critique of Jewish legalism as it existed at the time.
And the other was salvation, and what Nietzsche identified as ressentiment. It really amounts to a kind of revenge by the weak upon the strong. This was the theological construct that was overlaid on the ‘recorded’ sayings of Jesus.
Depending on which theme is of primary interest to you, you will have different interpretations of what is important.
Is it important to forgive the sinner in and of itself, or is it only possible because God will through them in a lake of fire?
I can’t remember where I read recently an analysis of one of Jesus’ parables — it was about the Samaritan on the side of the road and the Jewish rabbi’s who passed him by because of religious law/ tradition. (apologies for the dreadful rendition of the story & lack of cite, but it has been 20 years since I’ve picked up a Bible…)
Jesus was a radical for sure and disagreed with many of the legal/ religious dictates of the day, which is a whole other argument as to why he was crucified.
In terms of sin/ redemption: I was always taught that everyone is a sinner & everyone will be forgiven if they repent and live their lives in a good & humble way. You’re only judgment will be when you’re standing at the Pearly Gates… I never understood the Catholic confessional system: so you can just keep sinning as long as you go to church once a week and confess? (simplistic I know)
is an interesting anachronism.
Basically, it is an outgrowth of the idea of ritual cleanliness. You can’t enter the Temple until you have performed certain rites…
You cannot receive communion without cleansing yourself of sin. So, you confess and repent your sins and then you are fit to attend the miracle of transsubstantiation.
Of course, this was corrupted over time, until Martin Luther threw a hissy fit.