Post by thinkinkmesa on Dec 16, 2006 0:39:20 GMT -5
Joseph L. Clark's long execution in May was the kind of horror story that lends substance to the opponents of capital punishment who insist there's no humane way to carry out an execution.
Scheduled to die by lethal injection in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, Clark endured more than 80 minutes while the execution team struggled to find an open vein in either of his arms to complete the injection. At one point, Clark told the team the procedure wasn't working. He reportedly asked at another point to be killed some other way.
The fumbled execution opened another front in a growing national debate over whether the combination of drugs used in lethal injections masked suffering, making the method cruel and unusual punishment. Richard Cooey, condemned to die for the 1989 murders of two University of Akron students, is pursuing an appeal in federal court making that very claim. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of inmates to challenge lethal injections as a method of execution. As long as Ohio retains the death penalty, it has a responsibility to be flawless in conducting executions to spare not only the condemned but also prison teams and witnesses the trauma of protracted executions.
Last week, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections adopted new procedures to prevent a repeat of the ghoulish circumstances of Clark's final hour. To reduce errors from pressure, prison staff members will also be advised they don't have to complete their tasks in a specific time. Prison staff will now make sure that inmates scheduled for execution are physically examined three times to forestall such difficulties. The execution team will identify two open veins and make sure they stay open by using a low pressure saline solution.
The changes will reduce the incidence of sloppy executions. They won't remove the many flaws in using the death penalty as the ultimate punishment.
ohiodeathpenaltyinfo.typepad.com/ohio_death_penalty_inform/joseph_clark/index.html
Scheduled to die by lethal injection in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, Clark endured more than 80 minutes while the execution team struggled to find an open vein in either of his arms to complete the injection. At one point, Clark told the team the procedure wasn't working. He reportedly asked at another point to be killed some other way.
The fumbled execution opened another front in a growing national debate over whether the combination of drugs used in lethal injections masked suffering, making the method cruel and unusual punishment. Richard Cooey, condemned to die for the 1989 murders of two University of Akron students, is pursuing an appeal in federal court making that very claim. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the right of inmates to challenge lethal injections as a method of execution. As long as Ohio retains the death penalty, it has a responsibility to be flawless in conducting executions to spare not only the condemned but also prison teams and witnesses the trauma of protracted executions.
Last week, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections adopted new procedures to prevent a repeat of the ghoulish circumstances of Clark's final hour. To reduce errors from pressure, prison staff members will also be advised they don't have to complete their tasks in a specific time. Prison staff will now make sure that inmates scheduled for execution are physically examined three times to forestall such difficulties. The execution team will identify two open veins and make sure they stay open by using a low pressure saline solution.
The changes will reduce the incidence of sloppy executions. They won't remove the many flaws in using the death penalty as the ultimate punishment.
ohiodeathpenaltyinfo.typepad.com/ohio_death_penalty_inform/joseph_clark/index.html