Post by Anja on Jun 22, 2006 18:12:20 GMT -5
Debate grows on humaneness of lethal injection ---- Supreme Court ruling
intensifies discussion
Hanging, firing squads, the gas chamber and the electric chair - all were
abandoned over the years to make executions more humane, as well as less
ghastly for witnesses.
Now lethal injection, which has been used nationally since 1982 and in
Ohio since 1999, is under fire from critics who say it is violates the
Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
"I'm quite certain that some inmates have been tortured to death. Some of
them have suffered horribly," said Dr. Jonathan Groner, trauma medical
director at Children's Hospital and a longtime critic of execution
procedures.
The 3-drug process used to execute 21 men in Ohio has been criticized for
years, mostly by defense attorneys and antideath-penalty groups such as
Amnesty International.
But a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week fired up the debate about what
is the most painless and efficient way of putting murderers to death. The
ruling, while not supportive of critics' claims about lethal injection,
said the arguments should be aired in court.
The question is, if not lethal injection, then what?
North Carolina responded by hooking condemned inmates to a monitor to
measure their brain waves as they died.
Others advocate a large, single dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital, the
drug used in Oregon, the only state to legalize physician-assisted
suicide.
Still others recommend having trained medical personnel on duty at
executions. But Groner points out that physicians are forbidden by the
Hippocratic Oath - essentially, "Do no harm" - from participating in
executions.
Dr. Stanley Deutsch, an anesthesiologist from the University of Oklahoma,
developed the current mixture of 3 drugs used in lethal injections in
1977. Texas used it for the 1st time in 1982. Ohio and other states
adopted essentially the same protocol and have stuck with it.
State Prisons Director Terry Collins said he asked his attorneys to review
the court ruling to see how it affects Ohio. Also, he's still looking at
problems that plagued the execution on May 2 of Joseph Clark. It was
delayed more than an hour after a vein collapsed, prompting Clark to ask
his executioners whether they could give him something by mouth to kill
him.
Collins, who has been present at all executions since 1999, said, "I have
seen no one suffer during those 21 occasions."
But critics say that's the point, that the combination of drugs constructs
a "chemical curtain" that renders condemned inmates unable to move or
speak yet allows them to suffer as their respiration and hearts are
chemically stopped.
Of course, no one knows for sure, but there is some support for the
argument from patients who report being awake but paralyzed during painful
surgical procedures.
Veterinarians in many states have abandoned using the same drugs to
euthanize pets, considering them unreliable and potential causes of
suffering.
Dianne Clements, president of Justice for All, a victim-advocacy
organization in Houston, said the science is sound.
"The drugs that are used in lethal injection guarantee that the individual
is unconscious. They use 10 times the amount they use during a normal
surgery. It's impossible for them to feel pain."
Clements said victims' families often have an emotional response,
expressing frustration that the visibly calm procedure is too easy a
death.
"It's much easier to die by being put to sleep than by being brutalized
and tortured, raped, buried alive or burned alive," Clements said.
"But we don't set policy by emotional family views."
Greg Meyers, chief counsel for the Ohio public defender, said the Supreme
Court ruling means there will be "a full, fair public fight about whether
lethal injection constitutes torturing inmates to death."
"The U.S. Supreme Court pulled the curtain back and said to Ohio and all
the other lethalinjection states, 'You can't draw it closed and keep it
secret anymore.' "
Meyers said 2 pending Ohio cases, those of Richard Cooey and Jeffrey Hill,
contest the use of lethal injection. More might be added.
In the cases of John Glenn Roe, of Columbus, and Adremy Dennis and Lewis
Williams, attorneys argued against lethal injection but were rebuffed by
the courts. All 3 have been executed.
(source: The Columbus Dispatch)
intensifies discussion
Hanging, firing squads, the gas chamber and the electric chair - all were
abandoned over the years to make executions more humane, as well as less
ghastly for witnesses.
Now lethal injection, which has been used nationally since 1982 and in
Ohio since 1999, is under fire from critics who say it is violates the
Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
"I'm quite certain that some inmates have been tortured to death. Some of
them have suffered horribly," said Dr. Jonathan Groner, trauma medical
director at Children's Hospital and a longtime critic of execution
procedures.
The 3-drug process used to execute 21 men in Ohio has been criticized for
years, mostly by defense attorneys and antideath-penalty groups such as
Amnesty International.
But a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week fired up the debate about what
is the most painless and efficient way of putting murderers to death. The
ruling, while not supportive of critics' claims about lethal injection,
said the arguments should be aired in court.
The question is, if not lethal injection, then what?
North Carolina responded by hooking condemned inmates to a monitor to
measure their brain waves as they died.
Others advocate a large, single dose of the barbiturate pentobarbital, the
drug used in Oregon, the only state to legalize physician-assisted
suicide.
Still others recommend having trained medical personnel on duty at
executions. But Groner points out that physicians are forbidden by the
Hippocratic Oath - essentially, "Do no harm" - from participating in
executions.
Dr. Stanley Deutsch, an anesthesiologist from the University of Oklahoma,
developed the current mixture of 3 drugs used in lethal injections in
1977. Texas used it for the 1st time in 1982. Ohio and other states
adopted essentially the same protocol and have stuck with it.
State Prisons Director Terry Collins said he asked his attorneys to review
the court ruling to see how it affects Ohio. Also, he's still looking at
problems that plagued the execution on May 2 of Joseph Clark. It was
delayed more than an hour after a vein collapsed, prompting Clark to ask
his executioners whether they could give him something by mouth to kill
him.
Collins, who has been present at all executions since 1999, said, "I have
seen no one suffer during those 21 occasions."
But critics say that's the point, that the combination of drugs constructs
a "chemical curtain" that renders condemned inmates unable to move or
speak yet allows them to suffer as their respiration and hearts are
chemically stopped.
Of course, no one knows for sure, but there is some support for the
argument from patients who report being awake but paralyzed during painful
surgical procedures.
Veterinarians in many states have abandoned using the same drugs to
euthanize pets, considering them unreliable and potential causes of
suffering.
Dianne Clements, president of Justice for All, a victim-advocacy
organization in Houston, said the science is sound.
"The drugs that are used in lethal injection guarantee that the individual
is unconscious. They use 10 times the amount they use during a normal
surgery. It's impossible for them to feel pain."
Clements said victims' families often have an emotional response,
expressing frustration that the visibly calm procedure is too easy a
death.
"It's much easier to die by being put to sleep than by being brutalized
and tortured, raped, buried alive or burned alive," Clements said.
"But we don't set policy by emotional family views."
Greg Meyers, chief counsel for the Ohio public defender, said the Supreme
Court ruling means there will be "a full, fair public fight about whether
lethal injection constitutes torturing inmates to death."
"The U.S. Supreme Court pulled the curtain back and said to Ohio and all
the other lethalinjection states, 'You can't draw it closed and keep it
secret anymore.' "
Meyers said 2 pending Ohio cases, those of Richard Cooey and Jeffrey Hill,
contest the use of lethal injection. More might be added.
In the cases of John Glenn Roe, of Columbus, and Adremy Dennis and Lewis
Williams, attorneys argued against lethal injection but were rebuffed by
the courts. All 3 have been executed.
(source: The Columbus Dispatch)