I agree this makes no sense. I forget where I read it but they say that getting the needle, while it's a 3step process, is basically the easy way out and that the criminal doesn't suffer at all. They're first given a drug to knock them out so they don't feel anything other than being asleep. Then they're given the injection that kills them. Now that seems pointless if you ask me. Are the other methods considered too inhumane to execute? No pun intended. What happened to the electric chair or the firing squad which used to be the main methods of execution? Even hanging, which they still do in some areas. I'm not trying to play God but those seem "more fitting" since the criminal would actually suffer.
I guess some people say that the actual death is the ultimate punishment and that the person actually suffering as well would make the executioners seem less humane. I guess it's all a matter of opinion, but I think that's the gist of it.
It takes more money to execute someone than to just throw them in jail for life, because of appeals, etc. I think it would be better to let them rot in solitary than to kill them, but they should get no cushy treatment such as getting university degrees with taxpayers money because there are many more deserving people out there.
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — Death penalty opponents criticized the execution of a convicted murderer who took more than half an hour to die and needed a rare second dose of lethal chemicals. Angel Nieves Diaz, 55, convicted of murdering a Miami topless bar manager 27 years ago, appeared to grimace before dying Wednesday, 34 minutes after the first dose. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said she doesn't believe Diaz felt any pain and had liver disease, which required the second dose. "It was not unanticipated. The metabolism of the drugs to the liver is slowed," Plessinger said. Diaz's cousin Maria Otero said the family had never heard he suffered from liver disease. "Why a stupid second dose?" Otero said. Gov. Jeb Bush said the Department of Corrections followed all protocols. "A preexisting medical condition of the inmate was the reason tonight's procedure took longer than recent procedures carried out this year," the governor said in a news release. A spokesman for Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, called Diaz's death a botched execution. "They had to execute him twice," Mark Elliot said. "If Floridians could witness the pain and the agony of the executed man's family, they would end the death penalty." In most Florida executions, the prisoner loses consciousness almost immediately and stops moving within three-to-five minutes. Two doctors watching a heart monitor then wait for it to show a flat line. They then inspect the body and pronounce death. The whole process happens within 15 minutes. Plessinger said Thursday that prison officials told her a second dose had been used before on an inmate, but they did not know when. The state has never announced publicly that the extra chemicals were needed. Until a revised protocol came out in August, prison officials did not keep records on events in lethal injections. Diaz's final appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court challenged the chemicals used in the state's procedure, saying they constitute cruel and unusual punishment. His appeals were rejected about an hour before his execution began. Attorneys for him and other condemned inmates have been unsuccessfully challenging Florida's three-chemical method, saying it results in extreme pain that an inmate cannot express because one of the drugs is a paralyzing agent. Moments before his execution, Diaz again denied killing Joseph Nagy during a robbery at the Velvet Swing Lounge. There were no eyewitnesses to Nagy's Dec. 29, 1979, murder. Most of the club's employees and patrons were locked in a restroom, but Diaz's girlfriend told police he was involved. The governor of Diaz's native Puerto Rico sought clemency for him. Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, abolished capital punishment in 1929.
I agree with the death penalty- I mean you've got years to dispute your case if you're truly innocent.
I don't agree with the death penalty at all. It kinda seems like they are saying 'muder is wrong, so we will murder someone to prove this point' I am sure I read somewhere that the states in the US that have the death penalty have higher crime rates than those without, so I guess it doesn't really deter crime. But in saying that, a lot of young people that get sent to jail come out worse than when they went in so I guess jail doesn't really work that well either. Also there always is the chance that someone has been convicted for a crime that they did not commit, there have been a few occasions where someone has been serving a life sentance for murder and then they will go over the evidence with new technology and be like - oh yeah sorry looks like you didn't do it after-all, what would have happened if they had been executed? Also I don't really know for sure about this, but it seems to me that sometimes in court cases (esp. big public cases) it isn't whether you did it or not, it is how good your legal team is...
I don't agree with death penalty...I mean, I think that spend the rest of their lifes in prison is a better way for criminals to pay for their crime...If they die, they will not suffer anymore...
I agree with you Daniela. I mean the sick people that actually murder someone should not die, they should sit in there jail cell for the rest of there life, just so that they can suffer. They should take the time they are locked up to think about what they did.
its a case that happened in ontario. they were husband and wife. they tortured, raped, and murdered teenaged girls including karla homolkas kid sister. karla said paul bernardo forced her to do it and they made a deal with her. but after that deal was made video evidence was found that should she was an active and willing participant in the killings. she is out and living in quebec, paul is in jail for life. what about the families of the victims? if there is absolutely no doubt that someone has committed crimes that result in the death penalty (and it does happen) then i see no problem. why should they get to live out the rest of their life in jail while other people pay for it?