Good Lord, there is no excuse for this!
The Arizona Supreme Court has halted the planned execution of inmate Donald Beaty, who was scheduled to be given a lethal injection Wednesday morning for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old Tempe girl in 1984.
The temporary stay of execution was issued late Tuesday night after Arizona officials said they had planned to replace one of three drugs to be used in the execution because federal officials contended the state failed to fill out a form to import the drug being swapped out.
Hopefully they’ll square all the stupid paperwork away and square this guy away. I still don’t see the damn point to such an overly complicated machine for execution. A titration of opiates until pulmonary arrest would be far more simple, and actually probably rather pleasant for the condemned. Still nothing beats the long-drop method of execution as far as efficiency and humanity. But it LOOKS icky, so people avoid it. People can be really stupid sometimes.
Also let’s talk about our execution system for a second. 1984??? I was in KINDERGARTEN! Even if I was an adult back then I doubt I’d remember this case, it was so long ago, except for “Oh yeah!” when I read the headline. This is NOT swift carriage of justice. I understand the need for appeals and discovery, but come ON! 27 Years? In that time I went from a small child who couldn’t read to a scientist with a beard and a blog in that time! Part of the execution process is to remove dangerous people from all society, but another part is for other dangerous people to be aware that they too can be removed.
And all this as another big trial is starting in Arizona.
Get on the Ball, AZ!
I’ve always been a big fan of the firing squad. Much more reliable as far as the critical components go, I’d think. 😉
Not as repeatable tho when you look at anatomy and terminal ballistics.
But honestly its still better than the injection system we have.
Part of me wonders if all this federal interference with executions (due to one of the normal drugs no longer being available) is a subtle move by the Obama administration to try and get rid of the death penalty by administrative fiat.
But you’re right about one thing – a controlled opiate overdose is probably the most humane form of execution possible. A smooth slide from euphoria to sleep to true unconsciousness followed by death.
But a long drop and a short stop is far more economical, while still being humane if done correctly – and why should we waste the extra effort and money on drugs to make death pleasant for someone who would rape and murder a child?
“why should we waste the extra effort and money on drugs to make death pleasant for someone who would rape and murder a child?”
because the “Retribution” argument is a crock, and leads to really nasty avenues.
What’s fair retribution for a serial rapist and murderer? They killed many people so killing them once doesn’t seem square. So should we make the death long and drawn out? Still that’s just one death. Maybe we should torture them first?
There’s simply no dispassionate equation where we can make somebody “Square with the House”. My philosophy is to simply carry out the “ultimate penalty” swiftly (with checks and balances to ensure justice) and with the most respect and comfort for the condemned.
Frankly if given a controlled environment (such as an execution chamber) painless and quick death is pretty easy to achieve, even when you go for low-tech methods.
Once you get to capital punishment one must really wash their hands with “equality” as there is nothing more you can do to make the outcome better fit the crime.
Same goes for life-in-prison. Obviously a 30 year old psychopath is getting a longer time to rot in a cage than a 70 year old one. What can you do at this point?
Prisons “Cure” people, what they DO do is keep dangerous monsters away from me and my family for a while. Death Penalty doesn’t give retribution. It does keep dangerous criminals off the streets, and away from the jailers and other inmates, as well as cutting down on medical, food, and laundry bills.
That’s really the only way to look at it IMHO.
Er… I wasn’t heading for the retribution angle at all. Simply pointing out that there is already a simple, proven, and inexpensive method for causing a quick and fairly painless death, so there is no need to spend the extra effort to make it pleasant – which is what a narcotics overdose would do. The paper trail and security for the drugs involved adds extra expense and effort that simply isn’t needed with a rope.
As long as there is a reasonable and honest effort to avoid inflicting unnecessary or intentional pain, I don’t see that there is any need to go beyond that. One reason I don’t favour the electric chair is that I’m not convinced that it’s not extremely painful, and I don’t believe it routinely kills quickly. I dislike the firing squad for much the same reason. As far as we know, a proper hanging kills as close to instantaneously as possible, and with little to no perceived pain.
Also, you are right that 30+ years is a ridiculous length of time to get around to carrying out an execution.
Fair enough.
Still my point about the Morphine titration is its cheaper, the supply will NEVER dry up or get such red tape, and it will cause a very pleasant death.
On the contrary the current system uses a bunch of specialized drugs, and there is a strong question at weather or not the actual procedure is painful (and therefore unethical) for the prisoner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_injection#Procedure_in_U.S._executions
So my argument is the same for that of the electric chair or for firing squad. They’re overly complicated, there is a real possibility of unethical pain and suffering.
Morphine titration is very simple, and its mechanisms of action follow the same path of those who use recreational opiates, which is very pleasurable, and there is zero chance of pain or suffering because the cause of death is form a massive dose of a pain-killing hypnotic. So I’m not going out of my way, I just know a good idea when I see one.
Hey, the FDA hasn’t banned lead bullets, electricity, or rope yet. Maybe we can go back to proven methods like the firing squad, “riding the lightning”, or public hangings.
The options for “humane” and “enlightened” methods of dispatching these Capital Offenders keep getting reduced by the bureaucracy. There is a lesson there for us if we choose to acknowledge and learn it…
First, some Morphine to knock them out, then put them in the Gas Chamber and pump in some Carbon Monoxide. It all takes place while they’re asleep, and you don’t have to worry about running out of supplies. Problem solved, except for 27 YEARS on Death Row! Funny thing, it didn’t take long to put Tim McVay in the Ground from the time he was sentenced (relatively speaking), did it? Hope that Asswipe who shot up Ft.Hood gets the same kind of Justice, unless Seal Team Six wants to recreate the Bin Laden Shot for the Historical Record.
Eh, just double-down on the morphine until pulmonary arrest, the stuff is cheap, why complicate things?
Don’t most states have bundles and bundles of seized illegal narcotics?
Just saying once that evidence isn’t needed anymore, we can recycle. Let’s everyone push for “Green Executions” eh.
Why buy any drugs at all? Go down to the local LEO evidence room, check out some of the confiscated heroin, and OD the criminal. Where’s the down side?
Unfortunately purity of the junk would lead to ethical issues.
Hate to be a Debby Downer.
Having been electrocuted before, I can tell you that I’d rather be hacked to death by a gang wielding machetes than go to an electric chair.
And that was only 110 v!
If it was me wielding the machete, and you were willing, I could make a machete death pretty good. Just sayin’
Yeah the Chair really was NEVER a good idea.
I will have my people get in touch with your people and we will schedule something!
Interesting historical note: back when the electric chair was first invented, none of the electrical pioneers wanted anything to do with it. Electricity was still, at the time, viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism by the public as an unsafe technology. One of the debates was whether AC (as advocated by Westinghouse) or DC (as advocated by Edison) current was the more lethal. Neither wanted to be viewed as selling “The Executioner’s Current.” Both camps refused to participate in the process, but the electric chair people went around them, and the rest is history.
Yeah I never did any real research on it, but there were some crazy goings on in the development of “old sparky”