Inmate’s death called ‘horrific’

[bonehead]

They will lose, anoxic brains don't feel anything so he could not have suffered. Plus agonal respiration is a normal part of dying usually occurring between clinical death and biological death.

Example of agonal respiration. Drowning mad recovered by life guards, no pulse but agonal respiration so clinically dead.

Agonal Gasps - Bondi Beach Rescue - YouTube

Never underestimate the persuasiveness of a motivated lawyer and the ignorance of a judge/jury.

[Tamara]

........
Gregory Lott is scheduled to be executed in the same manner on March 19. This thread is not intended to debate capital punishment. That complex subject can be discussed in another thread. Rather, what do you think of the duration (almost 30 minutes) of this execution? The prison warden said that a review will be conducted as per protocol, but nothing technically went wrong. Although manufacturers no longer allow pentobarbital for human executions, it is still the veterinarian drug of choice for animal euthanasia and is fairly quick and painless. Does this make any sense? I believe the US Supreme Court has ruled that executions must not be cruel and unusual affairs. In other words... as brief as possible and humane.

Thoughts?

Hard to say........without knowing the mechanism of death in this case, not knowing what causes death and what the body goes through.

One of the "ghoulish" things I do from time to time is research how someone dies by this or that method. A lot of it is line of work but then again, I suppose one wouldn't get into this line of work if they didn't have some level of morbid interest or curiousity.

Is 30 minutes too long not to be humane? Depends on the mechanism. The passengers of Helios Airways Flight 522 took almost 3 hours to die......but they were unconscious within the first 15 minutes and operationally dead probably 15 minutes after that. Now maybe in an oxygen starvation situation, in unconsciousness, it is experienced as terrifying as the brain dies, but assuming that it isn't, their passage from this world to the next might have been, aside from the unknown situation they were in, rather peaceful. Point is, we really can't judge how terrible a death is based on the clock alone.

Long story short, Minskaya, we need more information in order to accurately answer your question.

[Gun Grape]

This is the most horrible thing I have read. I think we should have an immediate ban on execution by lethal injection. Just too many questions. Same with the electric chair, hanging and firing squad.

I suggest we instead look to the past and bring back Scaphism as our only form of capitol punishment.

On the list of "Things I will do to you if you ever f*%k with my family" this one has always been in the top 3.

[tbm3fan]

Wow, the Persians sure were imaginative compared to others. Not meaning to short change Gunny of course.

[bonehead]

Some good news..others on death row are nervous about the new drug combinations and are scared they might "suffer" when their time comes. I think it is a ploy for a stay of execution but if those on the outside are scared perhaps a few horrible crimes will not happen as a result. Criminals being scared and changing behaviors. That is a win-win in my book.






ST. LOUIS (AP) — Lawyers for a convicted murderer were making final pleas for his life on Tuesday, just hours before his scheduled execution in Missouri.

Related Stories

Mo. death-row inmate: State using expired drug Associated Press
Ohio executes killer: Was untested lethal injection 'cruel and unusual'? Christian Science Monitor
States consider reviving old-fashioned executions Associated Press
Supreme Court stays execution of Missouri murderer Reuters
Appeals against US executions amid drug controversy AFP
Herbert Smulls was convicted and sentenced to death for killing a St. Louis County jeweler and badly injuring his wife during a 1991 robbery. He is scheduled for lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

His defense attorney, Cheryl Pilate, has an appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and is seeking clemency from Gov. Jay Nixon, who said Tuesday afternoon that he was still weighing the clemency request. Pilate's arguments are mostly focused on the secrecy shrouding the execution drug.

State prison officials have refused to reveal from which compounding pharmacy they obtained their lethal-injection drug, pentobarbital. Pilate contends that the secrecy makes it impossible to know whether the drug could cause pain and suffering during the execution process.

The prospect of being put to death with a drug whose origin remains sealed "terrifies" Smulls, his attorney said. Pilate also said her client changed in prison, becoming a man who gets along well with other inmates and guards, and who has learned to write despite a low level of intelligence.

"I frankly cannot begin to tell you how distressing this situation is, that the state is going to execute a prisoner in his mid-50s who made one series of colossal mistakes that were in many ways out of character, because he is not a violent person," Pilate said.

St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said talk about the drug is a smoke screen aimed at sparing the life of a cold-blooded killer. He noted that several courts have already ruled against Smulls, including U.S. District Court in Kansas City and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"It was a horrific crime," McCulloch said. "With all the other arguments that the opponents of the death penalty are making, it's simply to try to divert the attention from what this guy did, and why he deserves to be executed."

Smulls had already served prison time for robbery when, on July 27, 1991, he went to F&M Crown Jewels in Chesterfield and told the owners, Stephen and Florence Honickman, that he wanted to buy a diamond for his fiancee. He took 15-year-old Norman Brown with him.

Once in the shop, Smulls began shooting. Stephen Honickman pleaded, "Enough already, take what you want," according to testimony from his wife. The robbers took rings and watches, including those that Florence Honickman was wearing.

Florence Honickman was shot in the side and the arm. She feigned death while lying in a pool of her own blood but survived. Her 51-year-old husband died.

Police stopped Smulls 15 minutes later, and they found the stolen jewelry along with weapons in his car. Florence Honickman identified the assailants.

Brown was convicted in 1993 of first-degree murder and other charges, and sentenced to life without parole. Smulls got the death penalty.

Missouri had used a three-drug execution process since 1989, until the drug makers stopped selling those drugs for executions. Missouri eventually switched late last year to pentobarbital, and the state argues that the compounding pharmacy providing the drug is part of the execution team — and therefore its name cannot be released to the public.

Compounding pharmacies custom-mix drugs for clients and are not subject to oversight by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, though they are regulated by states.

The drug was used to execute two Missouri inmates late last year.

On Tuesday, Pilate said that previous testimony from a prison official indicates the state stores the drug at room temperatures, which could taint the drug and potentially cause it to lose its effectiveness.

Pilate also said she and her defense team used information obtained through open records requests and publicly available documents to determine that the compounding pharmacy is The Apothecary Shoppe, based in Tulsa, Okla. In a statement, The Apothecary Shoppe would neither confirm nor deny that it makes the Missouri drug.

Also on Tuesday, Missouri Senate Democratic Leader Jolie Justus introduced legislation that would create an 11-member commission responsible for setting the state's execution procedure.

She said ongoing lawsuits and secrecy about the state's current lethal injection method should drive a change in protocol.
Yahoo!

[Minskaya]

I'll bet a judge puts the next scheduled execution in Ohio (March 19) on hold.

Next Ohio execution postponed by Kasich

Louisiana has also ordered a delay for an upcoming execution due to the midazolam/hydromorphone problems encountered by Ohio in executing Dennis McGuire.

[kato]

Although manufacturers no longer allow pentobarbital for human executions, it is still the veterinarian drug of choice for animal euthanasia and is fairly quick and painless.

Btw, it's actually not so much manufacturers as the fact that that manufacturer is in the EU. The ban on selling pentobarbital for executions is completely voluntary on the manufacturer's side, but only because the Danish government threatened, but did not officially enforce EU law (which bans exporting any components used in executions to outside the EU). For the same reason Hospira dropped exporting sodium thiopental from Italian factories in 2011 (which prompted the switch to pentobarbital in the first place).

Midazolam is produced by Roche btw. In Europe. Guess what's next not to be banned for capital punishment usage.

[bonehead]

Btw, it's actually not so much manufacturers as the fact that that manufacturer is in the EU. The ban on selling pentobarbital for executions is completely voluntary on the manufacturer's side, but only because the Danish government threatened, but did not officially enforce EU law (which bans exporting any components used in executions to outside the EU). For the same reason Hospira dropped exporting sodium thiopental from Italian factories in 2011 (which prompted the switch to pentobarbital in the first place).

Midazolam is produced by Roche btw. In Europe. Guess what's next not to be banned for capital punishment usage.

Oh the irony. The U.S. is awash with drugs, both RX and the illegal variety, which kills thousands a year yet we cant find a reliable source to execute a handful of death sentences.

[troung]

Firing squad or electric chair.

This isn't rocket science, people have been executed for several millennium.