The Truth About Lethal Injection...it's not fit for a rabid animal...

Given the horrifying manner in which Angel Diaz was murdered by the State of Florida this week, resulting in foot-long chemical burns from the drugs pumped into his body, effectively burning him from the inside out over the course of 34 minutes, I decided it is time to shed a little light on the realities of lethal injection. Many think lethal injection is a "humane" way to murder someone in order to show that murdering people is wrong (and we will put aside the complete illogical nature of that position, ironically often held by people who go on and on about a "culture of life")...well, they may be right, but only if "humane" has somehow flipped meaning to include brutal, torture, excruciating and the like.

A few decades ago the powers that be could hardly contain their joy when being told they would once again be allowed to lawfully murder minorities that may or may not have commited crime. Problem was, in the meantime the nation had become too "civilized" for the old methods of execution, and so they needed something to hide how disgustingly inhuman execution is. See, when the public sees bodies twitching at the end of a rope, heads literally rolling, disemboweling, slow painful gassing, and heads exploding into fire they tend to wonder if maybe, just maybe, the execution process just might be violating that pesky consitutional mandate against cruel and unusual punishment.

Enter Dr. Jap Chapman, a medical examiner from Oklahoma without a lick of experience dealing with pharmacology. (It is important to remember here what exactly it is a medical examiner does...examine folks that are already dead). Not having the time to research it at all, good ol' Dr. Chapman used his expertise on slicing up already dead bodies to come up with what would become the overwhelming favorite cocktail and procedure for lethal injections in the United States. His brilliant idea was to use give something to cause drowsiness and (theoretically unconsciousness), then a paralyzing agent for voluntary muscles which would stop your breathing...sounds fantastic, until you realize that the second drug does not knock the person out, only makes them unable to move to do pesky things like express excruciating pain which they are still very capable of feeling. Finally, it was decided we needed to really make sure they died, so potassium chloride to make force massive cardiac arrest was added to the mix. This mix is the same that caused the foot-long chemical burns on Diaz.

Here's the thing, the hipocratic oath has this little thing about saving life, and so no doctor can seriously participate in this process without violating THE ethical mandate of his profession (and of mankind really). So you get some schlubs standing away from the prisoner (who has been strapped down) administering these drugs through a drip. The first problem is these numbnuts can't find a vein a lot of the time, and there have been documented executions wherein a condemned, after 30 minutes or more, has had to assist the staff in locating a vein to kill him. And even then, sometimes they miss, which is what happened to Diaz and led to the excruciating end he must have endured...minutes after again professing his innocence.

So there is nobody standing by the prisoner to ensure that the first drug, the one that is supposed to knock the prisoner unconscious so that they cannot experience the excruciating pain of the follow up drugs, is actually doing what it should. There have been countless reports of prisoners continuing to breath while the second and third drugs were administered...meaning they likely felt the excruciating burn, only were unable to point this out because they were paralyzed from one of the drugs. All too often, there are reports of grimaces and small movements from the prisoner which witnesses tend to describe as pain. These people, often on shoddy evidence, have literally been experiencing chemical burns inside their bodies with no way of showing it. The average execution lasts approximately 15 minutes...that is 15 minutes of unimaginable pain without any means of letting anyone know. Cruel and unusual? No shit.

Here is the really disturbing part about the method used to murder prisoners with drugs...the process and cocktail is unsuitable to put down a rabid animal. The American Veterinary Medical Association, in 2002, declared the mix of drugs used is unacceptable for use in putting animals to sleep because one of them basically only serves to hide the incredible pain and suffering being caused by the others. Texas has turned that recommendation into law. It is currently illegal to put down a rabid dog using the process the state uses to kill humans...and that is even if you are trained.

So there you have it...lethal injection, not good enough for a rabid prairie dog, but good enough for a human being convicted on shaky evidence.

They told you who was who and gave you a worldview.

New Whigs. We Are You.
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