Botched Execution (12/13/06)

[Tom]

Angel Diaz (55), who was still awake after 10 minutes, was observed grimacing, licking his lips, blinking and mouthing words as long as 24 minutes after the first injection (lethal injection = 3 separate chemical injections). At 34 minutes, he was finally dead. Lethal injection usually takes about 15 minutes to work, during which time the inmate is unconscious and motionless.

The injecters stuck the needle past his blood vein and into soft tissue, basically burning his arm with chemicals and killing him slowly. The first two chemicals were supposed to immediately paralyze him and deaden pain; the last is to cause a fatal heart attack. This guy was tortured.

Links:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/12/18/di....ap/index.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16241245/
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/12/14/di....ap/index.html

[Tony]

How is this not an argument for the guillotine?

[Tom]

Oh, did I forget to add that part to the post? lol

[Shintarou Inuzuka]

This type of thing is why I'm against the death sentence. (That and they should be made to rot in jail possibly getting abused by their fellow inmates -- now THAT'S a punishment. Well, also because occasionally people are mistakenly sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, and once they're dead, there's nothing the government can do to make things right.) Lethal injections, if they were to look at what actually happens when someone is injected with those chemicals, could be (and should be) considered cruel and unusual punishment since they do actually torture the person receiving the death sentence.

[Matt Cruea]

To be fair, this is not the fault of the injection but the injector.

[ig.]

Interesting this made headlines, but it's only half the story. You'd be surprised just how many of these kinds of incidents go unreported.

[Providence]

To be fair, this is not the fault of the injection but the injector.

From what I understand the official reason is that the guy had liver problems.

If you have liver problems then you have problems metabolizing. This guy couldn't metabolize the poison. I'm not sure what sort of poison they use, but apparently it must be metabolized into another compound before it does any damage.

EDIT:

Interesting this made headlines, but it's only half the story. You'd be surprised just how many of these kinds of incidents go unreported.

Any evidence supporting this?
From what I know, execution by injection is always (?) public to family members and victims' families. It's usually recorded on CCTV as well. If there were other botched injections, I'm sure we'd have heard about them already.

[Mat Growcott]

is everyone forgetting this guy has been convicted for 25 or so years on murder charges? If i'd been through that i'd probaly be running towards the 34 minutes of painful death.

This is going to turn into another Tookie Williams debate...two sides, no middle ground, plenty of insults and a little bit of "Tell me where you fucking live" to spice it up.

Oh, what am i saying? It's the to be or not to be board. All of the above goes without saying...

[Tom]

If there were other botched injections, I'm sure we'd have heard about them already.

blarelgh

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/arti...scid=8&did=478

[Providence]

Oh, right. My bad.

When I was thinking about it being a "first", I forgot that it was the first time they needed a second injection, not the first time it fucked up.

Oh well.
If it were up to me, I'd support a bullet in the back of the head. Slightly messy, but painless. Can't really mess that one up. It's not quite cruel or unusual. Cheap too.

This type of thing is why I'm against the death sentence. (That and they should be made to rot in jail possibly getting abused by their fellow inmates -- now THAT'S a punishment. Well, also because occasionally people are mistakenly sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, and once they're dead, there's nothing the government can do to make things right.) Lethal injections, if they were to look at what actually happens when someone is injected with those chemicals, could be (and should be) considered cruel and unusual punishment since they do actually torture the person receiving the death sentence.

Death row inmates don't share the same cells as usual inmates do, do they?