This is Bad

[patric]

Watch that interview about 18 minutes in and tell me he didn't need to die.

Where did someone argue that point?
I thought the issue here was whether or not We The People can hold the moral high ground by being more humane than those that commit monstrous deeds.

Instead, our politicians have violated international law just to placate the RWE. 
If that becomes the norm, what do we become?

[cannon_fodder]

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/oklahoma-turning-it-11

Our esteemed governor is getting some more attention...

[patric]

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/oklahoma-turning-it-11
Our esteemed governor is getting some more attention...

...as is the Christian Taliban:

"I realize this may sound harsh," said Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian, a Republican lawmaker who pushed to have state Supreme Court justices impeached for briefly halting Tuesday's execution. "But as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."

http://www.statecolumn.com/2014/05/obama-botch-execution-is-troubling-oklahoma-lawmakers-vow-to-continue-killing/

[patric]

"It is absurd to think that the same group of people that unnecessarily rushed last night's execution and fought openness at every turn can now be expected to hold themselves accountable in an investigation."

Did anyone know what they were doing? We may never find out.

In a letter to the governor released Thursday afternoon, the director of the state corrections department, Robert Patton, said he supported an "external investigation" of the execution. He appeared to be referring to the review proposed by Ms. Fallin, since he said a report by his staff and his inspector general would not be as credible as one "conducted by an external entity." But a true external review would not be written by an employee of the Fallin administration.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/the-investigation-of-the-horrific-oklahoma-execution-will-not-be-independent/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

[TeeDub]

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/the-investigation-of-the-horrific-oklahoma-execution-will-not-be-independent/?_php=true&_type=blogs&hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

Random blogger as retort.
"And I'm sorry that his execution changes nothing, big picture or small. He ended up where he should have, just 43 minutes late."

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2014/05/clayton-locketts-victim-had-a-name-stephanie-neiman.html/

[nathanm]

Random blogger as retort.
"And I'm sorry that his execution changes nothing, big picture or small. He ended up where he should have, just 43 minutes late."

Eighth Amendment as retort.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Oklahoma Constitution as retort.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel or unusual punishments inflicted.

[TeeDub]

Eighth Amendment as retort.
Oklahoma Constitution as retort.

Conveniently, death is not cruel nor unusual.   Apparently it isn't cruel or unusual even when the electric chair fails and you have to reschedule.

The cruelty against which the Constitution protects a convicted man is cruelty inherent in the method of punishment, not the necessary suffering involved in any method employed to extinguish life humanely. The fact that an unforeseeable accident prevented the prompt consummation of the sentence cannot, it seems to us, add an element of cruelty to a subsequent execution.

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/FrancisvResweber.html

[patric]

The cruelty against which the Constitution protects a convicted man is cruelty inherent in the method of punishment, not the necessary suffering involved in any method employed to extinguish life humanely. The fact that an unforeseeable accident prevented the prompt consummation of the sentence cannot, it seems to us, add an element of cruelty to a subsequent execution.

That assumes a certain level of competence among those carrying out the sentence, which was clearly absent here... a factor that could have been addressed had those involved not been under unnecessary (and foreseeable) political pressure.

[TeeDub]

That assumes a certain level of competence among those carrying out the sentence, which was clearly absent here... a factor that could have been addressed had those involved not been under unnecessary (and foreseeable) political pressure.

I will concede that I can't understand how they failed to knock him out (having had surgery a couple of times, I am completely at a loss how they could not knock him out in about 30 seconds.)   

I still stand by the fact that he needed to be removed permanently from the gene pool.   He confessed to an extraordinary crime and showed no remorse anywhere along the way.   Much like this next guy who raped an 11 month old.   I won't feel bad that he died, regardless of how it happens.

[nathanm]

Conveniently, death is not cruel nor unusual.   Apparently it isn't cruel or unusual even when the electric chair fails and you have to reschedule.

Maybe that comparison would be valid if the electric chair failed in a way that still fried the guy, but took over half an hour to do it. Nobody said it would have been cruel and unusual punishment to decide at the last second that, hey, maybe we ought not try an untested drug cocktail on a person. Seems to me we ought to build a gas chamber if we're going to insist on killing people. You can suffocate people with nitrogen and have them never even know it's happening...

[Townsend]

You can suffocate people with nitrogen and have them never even know it's happening...

I bet if someone sat me down in that room, I'd have a pretty good idea I wasn't about to get a puppy.

[Gaspar]

Only government can make it this hard to kill a person.

[BKDotCom]

I bet if someone sat me down in that room, I'd have a pretty good idea I wasn't about to get a puppy.

Why not in your cell during your sleep while you dream about puppies and rainbows?

[BKDotCom]

Only government can make it this hard to kill a person.

Death by red tape

[Gaspar]

Death by red tape

Obamacare?