America going soft on capital punishment
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ViolentPanda
Hardly getting over it.
He wasn't violating accepted practice by his company. That's a lot different to not violating company regulation and maritime law. Illegal schillegal.
My dad did time in the RN and as a merchant seaman. He says that that sort of staff treatment has been endemic for 100 years, and yet there haven't been that many disasters. A ship's captain is there to take responsibility, and that includes making sure that staff are trained, and that maritime law is observed, whatever the pressure from the shipping line's bean-counters. You know why? Because lives depend on the captain holding the line.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Yeh. Nice if you signpost sources, my little chickadee
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Books, not bombs
I know I've mentioned Kris, Clive Stafford-Smith before and here is an email I have just received and thought was worth sharing (an innocent man who was on death row which has been commuted to life)....
"I went to see Kris Maharaj in Florida as soon as I got off the plane from Guantanamo Bay. He gave me a message for all those who are supporting his quest for justice - and made me promise not to edit out the last part.
As many of you will know, Kris’s case is very personal to me. I have been his lawyer and friend for 24 years - and this is the closest we’ve ever come to freeing him.
This is what he said:
“All this makes me feel so humble. I really have no words that could express how I feel about the amazing people who are behind me.
I try, and I hope I succeed, to suffer all this with dignity, but my real concern is my wife Marita. She is not one in a million, she is one in ten million. I really had my hopes up that perhaps I would be out by this Christmas, for her sake, but it’s not going to happen.
When I do get out, my duty will be to make sure that nobody else has to undergo what I have gone through and am still going through every day. The evidence is all there proving my innocence and who actually did these crimes.
And I want you to put this: None of this would be possible without Reprieve and Clive. You have to put that.” I tried to talk him out of this, as it sounds immodest, but he got quite animated about it.
Kris tears up when he talks about our case in federal court. It’s the first time we will be able to present all the evidence of his innocence to a court - if we win, this innocent man could be freed.
Freeing Kris is one of the many challenges we face in the coming year, along with stopping the execution of juveniles in Saudi Arabia and closing Guantanamo for good. Please join thousands of our supporters around the world and donate now to make it happen."
"I went to see Kris Maharaj in Florida as soon as I got off the plane from Guantanamo Bay. He gave me a message for all those who are supporting his quest for justice - and made me promise not to edit out the last part.
As many of you will know, Kris’s case is very personal to me. I have been his lawyer and friend for 24 years - and this is the closest we’ve ever come to freeing him.
This is what he said:
“All this makes me feel so humble. I really have no words that could express how I feel about the amazing people who are behind me.
I try, and I hope I succeed, to suffer all this with dignity, but my real concern is my wife Marita. She is not one in a million, she is one in ten million. I really had my hopes up that perhaps I would be out by this Christmas, for her sake, but it’s not going to happen.
When I do get out, my duty will be to make sure that nobody else has to undergo what I have gone through and am still going through every day. The evidence is all there proving my innocence and who actually did these crimes.
And I want you to put this: None of this would be possible without Reprieve and Clive. You have to put that.” I tried to talk him out of this, as it sounds immodest, but he got quite animated about it.
Kris tears up when he talks about our case in federal court. It’s the first time we will be able to present all the evidence of his innocence to a court - if we win, this innocent man could be freed.
Freeing Kris is one of the many challenges we face in the coming year, along with stopping the execution of juveniles in Saudi Arabia and closing Guantanamo for good. Please join thousands of our supporters around the world and donate now to make it happen."
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Clive Stafford-Smith is a giant among men, one of the very few people I would call a genuine hero.
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Books, not bombs
A step in the right direction California governor to halt executions
"I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people"
Amen to that.
"I do not believe that a civilized society can claim to be a leader in the world as long as its government continues to sanction the premeditated and discriminatory execution of its people"
Amen to that.
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Books, not bombs
This is the pretty chilling story of a botched execution, by lethal injection of someone who was probably innocent.
Presumably, it has surfaced now because they are gearing up to execute someone who is 73.
Killer's skin rips and he 'chokes for air' in 'worst botched execution ever'
Presumably, it has surfaced now because they are gearing up to execute someone who is 73.
Killer's skin rips and he 'chokes for air' in 'worst botched execution ever'
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Books, not bombs
It has to be a good thing that executions are down but not good that bitches are up. This is what happens when you get non medical staff administering the drugs. Perhaps they should stick to firing squads.
deathpenaltyinfo.org
The Death Penalty in 2022: Year End Report
Key Findings Eighth consecutive year with fewer than 30 executions and 50 new death sentences Botched executions and protocol errors lead to halts in Alabama and Tennessee Executions heavily concentrated in few jurisdictions – more than half in Oklahoma and Texas NOTE: Sentencing numbers are marked…
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
Never believed in the death penalty but 100% agree in life sentances without parole. I don't think the idea of them in anyway is inhumane but is actually an essential part of any just society. If I go and rape and kill a dozen kids, commit genocide etc, there is not one single argument that I should be able to live in society freely again.
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Books, not bombs
Ken Smith was the victim of a botched execution but has just been murdered, by nitrogen
Kenneth Eugene Smith: Alabama carries out first US nitrogen gas execution
Witnesses observed two to four minutes of writhing by convicted murderer Kenneth Smith before he died.
www.bbc.co.uk
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
You aren't killed by nitrogen, it's non-toxic. You're killed by asphyxiation. It's torturing someone to death.
Shit like this is why I'm pretty much 'oh well' about the fact the USA as an entity is dying.
Shit like this is why I'm pretty much 'oh well' about the fact the USA as an entity is dying.
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moochedit
I'm not feeding seagulls
Yeah iirc there is more nitrogen in our atmosphere than oxygen.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Not that you can think of anyway. How long did speer spend in prison? Or any of the people convicted but not executed at nuremberg?
Silas Loom
Man with glasses
The best known and most popular assisted dying handbook is full of praise for hypoxia as the most reliable and peaceful method of suicide. It lists all sorts of contraptions you can make at home which eliminate oxygen but, crucially, don’t allow it to be replaced with carbon dioxide, thus avoiding panic reflexes. Nitrogen features in plenty.
So although obviously I’m against the death penalty, I’m not automatically inclined to believe that the nitrogen chamber is particularly barbaric in comparison with other execution methods. Not unless there’s evidence about Ken Smith’s brain function during death, rather than his bodily movements.
So although obviously I’m against the death penalty, I’m not automatically inclined to believe that the nitrogen chamber is particularly barbaric in comparison with other execution methods. Not unless there’s evidence about Ken Smith’s brain function during death, rather than his bodily movements.
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
life without parole is a much worse sentence than death in anyone's book afaiac
Yossarian
Get thee behind me, Santa
It wasn't a nitrogen chamber, the nitrogen was administered through a mask strapped to his face - they gave him his last meal very early in the day to reduce the risk of him vomiting in the mask. According to a prison official, the thrashing was because Smith was, understandably, trying to hold his breath as long as possible.
Seems like nitrogen might well be a painless way to go if you're ready to die that way and can do so in a chamber, but terrifying and tortuous if it's forced on you
Nine Bob Note
Self-Isolating before it was fashionable
Forgive my ignorance, but as a fan of Oz (the first HBO 60m drama, not the magical fairyland ruled by the lazy witch Glinda), one death row inmate requests death by firing squad, and it is granted by the prison governor. The prison officers believe it is sick, but nevertheless volunteer alongside the hired executioner, and the deed is done. Soon after, the unnamed state bans any future such executions. Is there a reason this isn't a thing in the gun-loving US-of-A?
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Anyone will fight and struggle when they're asphyxiated, 'ready to go' or otherwise. It's a physiological reaction, not a choice.
Yossarian
Get thee behind me, Santa
I read something in a story about this case from a doctor who has overseen multiple nitrogen hypoxia suicides - he says it's all over very quickly when a person takes long, deep breaths, and he was horrified by Alabama's execution protocol with the mask, gurney etc.
I would provide a link but I got put off searching further when I Googled 'nitrogen suicide doctor' and got a lot of links to suicide hotlines
tim
EXPLODED TIM! (Help me!!!)
Obviously, that wasn't Ken Smith's view, as he kept on appealing against being executed despite already having spent decades in gaol, and in all probability facing further decades there if those appeals had been granted.
Silas Loom
Man with glasses
It’s a reaction to not having anything to breathe, or to inhaling carbon dioxide. The physiological reaction doesn’t occur when nitrogen is inhaled.
Yossarian even without the mask and the gurney, presumably things would still go badly for someone who holds their breath.
tim
EXPLODED TIM! (Help me!!!)
Under what circumstances would things go well for anyone who is being killed against their will?
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Sounds like they went and did it in the worst possible way. I would have thought that it'd be done by placing the condemned in a sealed room and replacing the normal air mix in there with pure nitrogen for no less than half an hour; although according to a brief look on Google the world record breath holder went for 24 mins and 37 secs, so let's call it a full hour to maximise the margin for error. With thick steel walls there wouldn't even need to be restraints once they're locked inside. The condemned should be informed that holding their breath will mean that the next lungful they inevitably take will be one of pure N2.
But no, they're still fucking it up with pseudo-medical bullshit like face masks and tying them down to a gurney. They're too incompetent or too determined to make an idiotic spectacle out of the event, possibly both.
But no, they're still fucking it up with pseudo-medical bullshit like face masks and tying them down to a gurney. They're too incompetent or too determined to make an idiotic spectacle out of the event, possibly both.
Silas Loom
Man with glasses
When it comes as a surprise, of course. That’s why the entrance to the hanging cell used to be hidden behind a wardrobe, to get it all over with in twenty seconds. If you’re going to have capital punishment, the only humane way to manage it is to eliminate ritual, and preferably to shoot the person in their sleep.
Yossarian
Get thee behind me, Santa
Yep, he had a mother, wife, two sons, and at least one grandchild as powerful incentives not to die.
It's such a fucked-up system - he commits a horrible crime at age 22, as somebody subcontracted by the person the victim's husband hired to kill her, spends 30-plus years in prison, then gets executed at a time when he would have been paroled in a lot of other jurisdictions.
Silas Loom
Man with glasses
Broadly agree, but the condemned shouldn’t be informed of anything. As in, they should get accustomed to the sealed room in comfort, then the oxygen replacement with nitrogen happens at an unexpected moment.
Silas Loom
Man with glasses
Yes, death row is cruel and inhumane and absolutely unconscionable in and of itself.
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Books, not bombs
Life without payrole offers a glimmer of hope.
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Books, not bombs
I am not convinced he committed the murder, he might simply have been an accomplice.
Also, the jury recommended clemency, but thats neither here nor there.
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