NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Governor Bill Lee announced Monday all previously scheduled executions in 2022 will be paused amid plans to launch a third-party review of the lethal injection testing oversight that resulted in a temporary reprieve for death row inmate Oscar Franklin Smith.
“I review each death penalty case and believe it is an appropriate punishment for heinous crimes,” said Lee. “However, the death penalty is an extremely serious matter, and I expect the Tennessee Department of Correction to leave no question that procedures are correctly followed.”
2022 executions paused after Lee orders review following Smith reprieve (wkrn.com)
OK, seems fair and constitutional to consider fully that no execution method is unduly painful. But then I read this:
According to a release, Tennessee will retain former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton to conduct an independent review of the following:
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Circumstances that led to testing the lethal injection chemicals for only potency and sterility but not endotoxins preparing for the April 21 execution
Sterility? Are we worried that this guy’s testicles stop producing viable sperm after he is sent to the hereafter for his hideous crimes? That happens to every human male after death visit us.
I don’t get it, it sounds just plain stupidity in Legalese.
My interpretation is that he doesn’t like using the death penalty and he is seeking away to not use it.
I think that means sterile as in germ-free, not as in shooting blanks.
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Still doesn’t make a lot of sense given the intended use, but i guess I can see it.
The drugs have to be tested for sterility, because septicemia is a serious problem in the afterlife.
And endotoxins are no laughing matter! If they inject him with endotoxin-contaminated drugs, the endotoxins could kill him, assuming the drugs didn’t do the job first.
(Vaguely remembering a line from an episode of Get Smart: “Prepare the death serum – and be sure to use a clean needle.”)
Now pondering quality-of-afterlife issues: as Arthur dent remarked, “I don’t want to go to Heaven with a headache! I’d be all cross and wouldn’t enjoy it.”
Though, in terms of enjoying the afterlife, perhaps Mr. Smith should have made better life choices some time ago. I’m not so sure his afterlife will be the sort one is meant to enjoy.
That’s not what sterility means here. They don’t mean that they’re concerned it will make the dead guy sterile, they’re concerned if the solution is sterile.
It’s not like that makes much sense, either. The purpose of the solution is to execute them, they won’t live long enough to get an infection.
Likewise the next statement about endotoxins in the mix. The purpose of the injection is to be a toxin. Why worry about that?
If sterility seals are compromised, the drug’s potency and effectiveness may be also.
If you’re sitting on execution drugs for 15 years, they may not work if they’re not sterile.
Kill the guy? Sure. Let’s do that.
Not kill the guy, but maybe paralyze him, or fail to sedate him initially, and he’s screaming while wide awake for 30 minutes, with 27 witnesses, including the media? That’ll be the last execution anywhere, ever.
Then have to postpone to hope to do it right the second time, while you wait for a fresh batch of drugs to arrive?
Cruel and unusual. Black letter law, since ever.
Folks should think about this for about 5 seconds, and calm down.
Imagine using 80 year old ammo that misfires, or a 200-year-old rope that breaks when it takes the load.
Same idea.
Try to recall for a minute that this is something the government is in charge of.
Just OD them on morphine… why do we need this goofy cocktail anyway?
Fentanyl. Heaven knows there is plenty around.
That’s messy though. Morphine just makes em go to sleep…
You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about.
Drug 1: Sedative (Valium, Versed, etc.) Puts them to sleep.
Drug 2: Paralytic (succinylcholine) paralyzes the muscles of respiration beyond any possibility of life remaining (i.e. total bodywide cellular death).
Drug 3: Electrolyte (potassium chloride) A massive dose stops the heart muscle from beating.
That’s why they need “this goofy cocktail”:
A) We want them dead, Dead, DEAD.
B) The death must not be cruel, hence sedation first, before you suffocate them chemically and switch off their heart like flipping a switch, otherwise it’s a violation of the 8th Amendment of the Constitution.
M’kay?
That sounds roughly like what veterinarians use every day. Any reason they couldn’t simply get a bottle from the local vet’s office?
Isn’t that the same thing that a morphine OD does to you? The difference is you get a massive high first. I would prefer they just hit the off switch with a large caliber bullet…
Wouldn’t have this issue with A Bullet (.308) to the Back of the Head.
(Change My Mind?)
Hell, I’d even Gladly Send Boxes each month to the STATES.
Is there No More Common Sense?
Just be sure to disinfect the round first … And make it an all copper projectile. Can’t have heavy metal toxemia happening to the poor fellow…
Give them a nice easy dose of morphine or heroin with maybe a little Xanax an hour before relax them, then push a lethal dose of Fentanyl. — 100,000 dead Americans from Drug Overdoses last year cannot be wrong.
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https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20211117.htm
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Or a firing squad firing high caliber rifles or slug shooting shotguns. Messier, but it will be fatal and quick.
Or do the Chinese Thing. Tie them down, remove the donor organs, and let them bleed to death.
A) Unusual. No-Go.
B) Acceptable.
c) Cruel and unusual. No-go. At the Dr. Mengele level.
Also A) Cruel.
Opiate overdoses depress respirations, they don’t stop them entirely. Which leaves them unconscious, but gasping agonally for breath, and flopping around like a fish out of water before they die. And takes time. Also pretty Mengele-ish.
The succinylcholine (which is used for the same purpose when you’re being intubated) totally paralyzes the muscles, including those for breathing, so they simple stop moving at all. Which is brain death in 6 mnutes, and cellular death in 15 minutes, while they lie motionless.
Bear in mind, the press attends all executions, by law and custom.
So do you want them watching the guy who’s flopping around gasping for breath for five minutes, or the guy who ceases all movement in about 2 seconds, and whose heart stops in less than 5 seconds, after being sent to a sedative Oblivion?
OK. It should be Firearms.
Utah approves.
And SCOTUS has no squawk with that either.
The usual problem is whittling down the firing party to only six volunteers.
Most people would like it done in the manner of Bonnie and Clyde.
Maybe folks should crack open their new testaments and read about crucifiction.
Read all you want.
It’s not legal here either.
Much like 1984 John 19 was not intended as an instruction manual.
The intention of the BoR was that it should be enough for the state to end someone’s life, without stooping to physically torturing them in the process.
If you think you could get that amended, go ahead on.
But be careful what you wish for.