filed under WTF?
how hard can this be?
9:41AM ON
04/17/2008
BY
Beth Comery
The Supreme Court has just decided that the lethal injection method, as performed now in 35 states, does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. I’ll say up front that I am opposed to the death penalty. But my question now is more scientific in nature — why is it so frigging hard to kill these people? I have had major surgery. They put a mask over your face and tell you to count backwards from 100. You never get past 99. They then plunge scalpels and clamps and sponges and spatulas and iPods and God-knows-what-all into your body and you never feel a thing! Plus, every year people die accidentally on the operating table because of problems with the anesthesia … can’t those guys write ‘Lethal Injections for Dummies’ for the prison system? This shouldn’t be that hard.
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4 Comments on “ how hard can this be? ”
April 17th, 2008 at 10:12AM
Jim Rizzo Says:
I, too, am against the death penalty. Keep non-violent criminals out of jail and keep the violent ones in there longer. No need for the death penalty.
It’s my opinion that doctors that assist in executions (especially the botched ones) should lose their license to practice medicine. I also feel that if they tried to execute you and fail, you should be allowed to live.
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April 17th, 2008 at 11:21AM
Ariel Werner Says:
The entire discussion of whether lethal injections constitute cruel and unusual punishment is farcical, given that the underlying assumption is that capital punishment can ever be executed (no pun intended) in a way that is nice and usual. It doesn’t matter whether or not they ruled against lethal injection in this case… it’s a diversion to make us think that the Court and gov’t are somehow concerned with human rights for people on death row. They’re not.
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April 17th, 2008 at 5:31PM
JOE BERNSTEIN Says:
People on death row who victimized children have no human rights.They should be garroted like they used to do in Spain.What were the child victim’s last moments like?Those who prey on the defenceless and innocent have given up their humanity.
I spent 26 years total in law enforcement and cop killers at least go up against someone who’s armed and trained and can just as likely kill them first. Ariel-when you are a parent you will understand.I personally don’t care about “humane” capital punishment-the underlying offense is inhumane in itself.We don’t impose the death penalty for impulse homicides or mercy killings.
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April 17th, 2008 at 9:02PM
JOE BERNSTEIN Says:
beth-you’re right-i’ve had general anesthesia at least 8 times and once i was out for about 5 hours in a very serious and messy operation that i still have residual pain from after 28 years-aside from the occasional occurence of “awareness”,which must be a horror story,most people experience nothing under anesthesia-at least i didn’t-the aftermath is different-lots of people including myself have experienced nasty post-anesthesia problems-the execution by lethal injection is a giveaway to those who should be hung or gassed or electrocuted-why did they do away with the firing squad?it’s quick and certain
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