This is Bad

[Townsend]

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

They'd need to clean the brown noise.

[TeeDub]

In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was introduced as Nevada sought a more humane way of executing its inmates. Gee Jon was the first person executed by lethal gas. The state tried to pump cyanide gas into Jon's cell while he slept. This proved impossible because the gas leaked from his cell, so the gas chamber was constructed.

[DolfanBob]

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...

OK somebody cue the Nazi reference.

[RecycleMichael]

Why not just use a bullet to the head? it's fast painless and quick. I would favor hanging too. I never was a big fan of drug execution but it's still better thyan having no death penality.  This makes me wonder if someone has been tampering with the execution drugs.

Having to read your comments is cruel and unusual.

[patric]

Governor had her new Prison Czar remodel the death chamber, use higher doses, and cut the number of media witnesses from 12 to 5.


All fixed now.

[Conan71]

Governor had her new Prison Czar remodel the death chamber, use higher doses, and cut the number of media witnesses from 12 to 5.


All fixed now.

Frilly curtains?

[patric]

Frilly curtains?

My guess was cheery wallpaper to replace the Soviet-mental-asylum-esque tile walls.


The new execution protocols are a slap in Oklahoma's face. The government took a process already corrupted by secrecy and made it even more difficult for the public to know anything about it. Director Patton and Governor Fallin may not understand what "accountability" means, but the people of Oklahoma do. The ACLU of Oklahoma will continue its fight to ensure the people are able to exercise that right.

http://acluok.org/2014/10/statements-from-aclu-of-oklahoma-in-response-to-new-oklahoma-execution-protocol/

The new protocols feature a glaring attempt to escape public accountability and erect new walls of secrecy surrounding Oklahoma's dysfunctional execution process. It is appalling that when the need for government transparency is at its greatest, our government's response is to run and hide. The doubts expressed recently by the federal court as to whether Oklahoma could be ready for its next scheduled executions are no longer in question–the state is not ready, nor will it ever be ready so long as those charged with carrying out this ultimate exercise of government power lack the basic courage or maturity to bear the public responsibility that comes with their power. The new protocols were an opportunity for the state to clean up a corrupted process, and instead our government chose to reach for the nearest broom and rug.

http://acluok.org/2014/08/aclu-and-news-organizations-sue-over-closed-blinds-during-botched-lockett-execution/


My belief is that there are a very small number of instances where capital punishment might be appropriate, but our state government has demonstrated it is not competent.

[TeeDub]

The government took a process already corrupted by secrecy and made it even more difficult for the public to know anything about it.

The new protocols feature a glaring attempt to escape public accountability and erect new walls of secrecy surrounding Oklahoma's dysfunctional execution process.

Apparently you didn't type "oklahoma executions" into google.  If you do, number one is this little gem.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma prison officials unveiled new execution procedures Tuesday to replace those used in April ....

The new guidelines allow the state to keep using midazolam, a sedative used in flawed executions earlier this year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona, although it calls for increasing by five times the dose it gave Clayton Lockett in April. Other changes include more training requirements for prison staff and members of the execution teams, and having contingency plans in case of problems with execution equipment or an inmate's medical condition. The new protocols also reduce the number of media witnesses from 12 to five.

[Townsend]

The new protocols also reduce the number of media witnesses from 12 to five.

Probably keeps the screaming from the gallery to a minimum.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

On a positive note, surely Faillin created some new jobs and did more to help the state then Brad Henry did. 

[Townsend]

On a positive note, surely Faillin created some new jobs and did more to help the state then Brad Henry did. 

Well there were a lot more executions under Henry so far.

[patric]

 
ACLU:  "The people do not have a right to know how the government is exercising its greatest authority."

[Ed W]

Where did that quote come from, Patric?

Ed W

[guido911]

Where did that quote come from, Patric?

Ed W

?
http://www.fox23.com/news/news/local/aclu-criticizes-new-oklahoma-execution-protocols/nhbHh/

[Townsend]

This makes it all better:

Oklahoma Prison Officials Unveil New Death Chamber



http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/oklahoma-prison-officials-unveil-new-death-chamber

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma prison officials are letting the public get its first look at the newly renovated death chamber inside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.

The Department of Corrections is allowing members of the media inside the prison's maximum-security H-unit on Thursday to see the new room.

Prison officials have completely rebuilt the death chamber and adjacent viewing rooms to give executioners more room. They've also ordered backup medical equipment and developed new protocols for carrying out executions since a lethal injection went awry in the spring.

The director of the state prison system, Robert Patton, has said his agency will be prepared to carry out the next scheduled execution on Nov. 13.

But many death penalty experts doubt that and want the federal court to look at the protocols.