Death Takes a Holiday
Thursday December 28, 2006
Full Coverage: The Execution of Angel Nieves Diaz
On December 13th, 2006, the State of Florida executed Angel Diaz by lethal injection. The botched 34-minute execution amounted to death by torture, with the conscious Diaz moving his mouth feebly against the effects of his muscle relaxant as the injection chemicals bubbled under the soft tissue in his arm and slowly, painfully, attacked his heart. Governor Jeb Bush immediately declared a four-month moratorium on executions in the state and appointed a new commission to analyze Florida's lethal injection protocols. Later the same day, a California judge imposed a similar moratorium; four days later, a Maryland judge also imposed a moratorium. This means that executions are now on hold indefinitely in all three states.
Lethal injection became the most commonly-used form of execution following several gruesomely botched gas chamber and electric chair executions in the early 1980s. The question is now whether the Diaz execution will have a similar effect on lethal injection and what form of execution, if any, might replace it. The current moratoria will certainly result in revisions to lethal injection protocols to make the procedure more humane, but they could also represent the first step in the abolition of the death penalty on a national scale. A recent poll found that a mere 53 percent of Americans support capital punishment; if state commissions uncover more evidence of racial disparities, botched executions, postmortem exonerations, and other problems, it is conceivable that public opinion will shift definitively against the death penalty for years to come.
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Lethal injection became the most commonly-used form of execution following several gruesomely botched gas chamber and electric chair executions in the early 1980s. The question is now whether the Diaz execution will have a similar effect on lethal injection and what form of execution, if any, might replace it. The current moratoria will certainly result in revisions to lethal injection protocols to make the procedure more humane, but they could also represent the first step in the abolition of the death penalty on a national scale. A recent poll found that a mere 53 percent of Americans support capital punishment; if state commissions uncover more evidence of racial disparities, botched executions, postmortem exonerations, and other problems, it is conceivable that public opinion will shift definitively against the death penalty for years to come.
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Comments
Absolutely, amazingly great info on the death penalty, Tom!
I hope and pray that the death penalty has taken a permanent holiday. Shocking to realize that our government, alone among the western industrial nations, engages in such barbaric practices.
The British method of judicial hanging is 100% effective in causing instant death.
It takes between 15-30 seconds, yes seconds.
http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/hanging2.html
One wonders why the USA has never used it since it superseded the US ‘long drop’ techique about 100 years aog. . . .
For much the same reason Americans are 100 year behind the rest of the developed world in having a National Insurance system (which the free world would regard as a ‘civil liberty’ Americans don’t have)
Ah yes, I have the answer! American Arrogance.