The execution of a convicted murderer in Arizona lasted for nearly two hours on Wednesday, as witnesses said he gasped and snorted for much of that time before eventually dying.
This drawn-out death of Joseph R. Wood III in Arizona prompted the governor to order a review and drew renewed criticism of lethal injection, the main method of execution in the United States, just months after a high-profile botched execution in Oklahoma.
“I’ve witnessed a number of executions before and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Dale Baich, one of Wood’s attorneys, told The Washington Post in a phone call. “Nor has an execution that I observed taken this long.”
Wood was sentenced to death in 1991 for shooting and killing his ex-girlfriend Debra Dietz and her father, Eugene. In 1989, Wood went to a body shop where Debra and her father worked and shot Eugene Dietz in the chest; he then shot Debra twice, killing her.
He was killed at the Arizona State Prison Complex in an unusually prolonged process that immediately brought to mind lethal injections that have gone awry in recent months.
“I take comfort knowing today my pain stops, and I said a prayer that on this or any other day you may find peace in all of your hearts and may God forgive you all,” Wood said as part of his final words, according to the Associated Press.
Maybe he did deserve to die in a torturous manner. That isn’t the point. The point is WE the people are better than that. We do not commit torture. We don’t kill in the name of the state in cruel and unusual ways. There have been too many of these nasty executions by lethal injection–you know, the ones where the people don’t just close their eyes and go to sleep.
The problem seems to be that the various state prisons can’t get their hands on the cocktails used to execute people who are on death row. Many companies overseas won’t sell the drugs used to make the cocktails because of their intended use. Don’t we have drug companies here that can manufacture what it takes to do the job? What do we use when we have to put our pets down? I don’t know the answer.
If America can’t kill humanely, then it needs to get out of the killing business and just keep people in solitary for the rest of their lives. This botched execution business has gotten out of hand. It hurts the reputation. Perhaps we should just go back to Old Sparky. That was brutal but fast. Firing squads and hangings seem pretty quick and dirty when compared to lethal injection these days.
Hmm, maybe Kim Jung Un was on to something with death by mortar round. Quick, inexpensive, painless and saves one the trouble of digging a grave. You simply sweep what’s left into the crater left behind. That or death by flamethrower (although that might smell a bit bad).
“There have been too many of these nasty executions by lethal injection–you know, the ones where the people don’t just close their eyes and go to sleep.”
When a beloved pet is suffering, we manage to put them down in a humane manner. I’ve had to go through this with several pets, and have come to accept this as part of having these creatures as part of the family.
“Lethal Injection” worked until there was a change in the drugs used for the purpose, which resulted in these botched executions. I’ve often wondered who we (society) were intending to benefit, by adopting this method of imposing the “ultimate sanction”. There are many methods used previously that result in instant (and supposedly painless) death. A properly administered hanging would kill instantly. The guillotine or other method of instant decapitation, although never used here in the US, would render a quick and painless death, albeit in a gruesome fashion.
The electric-chair, gas chamber, firing squad, and the gallows have been the methods used by the authorities, prior to the advent of lethal injection, and none were guaranteed to cause immediate death, and not without some suffering. Now, we can debate the moral implications of sparing a murderer suffering, especially when their victims most likely suffered greatly at their hands, but it is not my intention to move the discussion in this direction. My question is, for whose benefit did society decide that “lethal injection” was “more humane”? I would argue society wants executions to be “clean and clinical”, and this is why lethal injection is the preferred means, so those tasked to dispassionately impose the death-penalty (society) can more easily live with themselves.
And for the record, I am pro-death penalty. There are some who deserve it. But I don’t kid myself into thinking just because the method used doesn’t result in someone’s choking to death by strangulation or asphyxiation, massive trauma inflicted by a projectile, or by a massive current of electrical energy, that it is somehow “better”, or more acceptable. Quite the contrary, in order for the death penalty to be judiciously applied by civil authority, awarded when merited by a judge or jury, and most of all, maintain a deterrent to murder, it should be more than “you get a shot, become unconscious, and your heart stops”. Let’s reserve this for the beloved pets we sometimes need to put down in order to limit suffering, if for the only reason to spare the owners the guilt and pain associated with doing so.
Definitely some things to think about in what you said, Steve. I think a 2 hour execution is too long and that it falls into “cruel and unusual” punishment. I think we probably need to look at why we are executing people. Maybe that is a discussion we need to be having. Is it for revenge? Is it to rid ourselves of a worthless, evil human being?
My only problem with the death penalty used to be the mistaken guilty verdicts. There are too many poor people who have fallen into that category. I have seen what money does for a court case. Being able to hire a good defense attorney can make the difference between life and just serving a few years. Then there is OJ Simpson and the grand example, the poster child for getting away with murder.
Steve, I agree with you about beloved pets. I would like to extend it to beloved human beings I believe it so much.
Bring back the Colosseum, gladiator games would take care of the condemned and the proceeds from tickets, concessions, naming rights and television rights could be used to fund the shortfall in education funding.
Why not? We look more and more like Rome every day.
@Moon-howler
Judge Kozinski on the 9th Circuit makes many of the same arguments in his dissent. He thinks the best method is firing squad: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2014/07/21/judge-kozinski-bring-back-the-firing-squad/
I am almost to the point of reevaluating my beliefs on the death penalty. I absolutely believe that there are some people just not worth keeping alive. Hideous evil human beings On the other hand, we are always turning lose someone who was headed for death row because they had really lousy lawyers and corrupt juries. These people are usually the poor. I find that very disturbing. How do you give someone back 40 years of their life? You can’t. How do you give someone back their life.
The forensic evidence and DNA has to be stronger. Often murder is missing the dna component also. I just don’t know. I am conflicted.
Supposedly it isn’t about revenge but damn,..you know that some of these hideous sub humans just shouldn’t live. What was the name of that creep who buried that little girl alive in Florida. Just kill him. Who cares.
We should give prisoners on death row a choice. Life in prison or their choice of various means of execution if they would rather die sooner than later.
@ed myers
We should give the victim’s survivors the choice of life in prison or various means of execution with the latter to be determined by the “Wheel of Death”.
Fry them and fill the potholes with their charred remains, as a great radio host once proposed. Seriously, give them a choice between modes of death and be done with it.
One of the relatives of the victims of Wood was quoted this morning. Even though it took a long time to finish Wood off, he appeared to be sleeping and was, in fact, snoring (according to this highly biased witness). If this is true, then Wood likely did not suffer at all and this is much ado about nothing.
@Mom
That sounds real good theoretically. Sometimes there are extenuating circumstances.
It’s easy to talk tough and a lot harder to deal with the reality of all this.
@Kelly_3406
Who really knows. Maybe our pets don’t just go to sleep. How would we really know.
As I have said, it isn’t that I care if someone like Woods suffers. It’s that I care if we make him suffer.
There is something about the retribution and torture that sickens me.
Several folks (including Judge Koszinski in the link aptly provided by Steve) that this lethal injection thing was an attempt to “sanitize” executions. Let’s just give that up. If state killings are the lawful will of the people, do it the way least likely to be botched or to cause avoidable suffering. Shooting does it. Yes, it’s a mess. Yes, someone has to clean up. But it’s almost certainly effective and nearly instantaneous.
Sickening and disgusting
It has been described here before.
Put convict in a sealed room. Substitute oxygen for nitrogen. Painless. Swift.
People die from it quite often by accident when entering a previously sealed chamber.
They walk into the room that has too little oxygen. They pass out. They die.
Need an edit!
Substitute oxygen FOR Nitrogen.
AAAAGHHH! did it again.
YOU GUYS KNOW WHAT I MEAN! Nitrogen for oxygen.
Been up too late for too many days.
G’nite
Let me know if you want me to fix it for you.
@Steve Thomas
Agree…I’ve suggested The History and Decline of the Roman Empire as good reading. Did you know many theorists include climate change as one of the factors along with lead poisoning? Decline of the military and economic system, loss of traditional values, government corruption, couple of big invasions and rise of other civilizations….
We’re closing in on the 500 year mark ourselves…we haven’t divided the US into smaller areas to improve governing, yet.
I say this should be the next campaign must read – Atlas Shrugged is a bit dim by comparison. Actually Atlas Shrugged is simply a bit dim. But I digress.
Perhaps we did it right up front and we called them States.
Moon,
It should be something that causes a certain uneasiness when considered, as we do not want to take this lightly. I do think it has its place in our justice system, and there are those for whom it is a just punishment. Ted Bundy. John Wayne Gacy. Timothy McVeigh. John Allen Mohammed. These are cases where the burden of guilt was satisfied, that these men killed in heinous and depraved ways, and they death penalty.
Ironically, Gacy (who had 29 known murder-victims, most buried in the crawlspace under his house) experienced complications with his execution:
“Before the execution began, the chemicals used to perform the execution unexpectedly solidified, clogging the IV tube administering the chemicals into Gacy’s arm and complicating the execution procedure. Blinds covering the window through which witnesses observed the execution were drawn, and the execution team replaced the clogged tube to complete the procedure. After ten minutes, the blinds were reopened and the execution resumed. The entire procedure took 18 minutes.[223] Anesthesiologists blamed the problem on the inexperience of prison officials who were conducting the execution, stating that had correct execution procedures been followed, the complications would never have occurred. This error apparently led to Illinois’ subsequent adoption of an alternate method of lethal injection. On this subject, one of the prosecutors at Gacy’s trial, William Kunkle, said: “He got a much easier death than any of his victims”
Those would be on my kill list also. One person not on a kill list who should be is Charlie Manson. (In my not-so-humble opinion)
I also agree with you that there should be thought put in to it–lots of thought.
I got in an argument over the weekend with someone who felt Malvo should have been put to death also. I do not. I believe he was brainwashed, almost a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. He was also kid who had more than his fair share of vulnerabilities. NOne of those excuse his actions but should be taken into consideration when deciding life imprisonment vs death penalty. I think the right decision was made and he has many years to spend at Red Onions Correctional Facility in solitary.
I have read much on the history of the Roman empire, including Gibbon’s most excellent work, and agree with the conclusions that it wasn’t any single-thing, but an aggregate of internal and external forces that caused the decline and fall. It is well-known amongst scholars that a changing climate, or “little ice age” across the Northern Hemisphere caused masses of people to migrate, which placed further pressure on Rome, and this continued to impact Europeans well into the 17th century. The suspected cause of the near-starvation of the Plymouth colony was nitrogen-poor soil, and a cooler-wetter growing season.
I tackled Atlas Shrugged in college, and read it again about 10 years ago. No desire to read it a third time. The long soliloquies bored me to tears. Anthem…that is the Rand work I enjoyed. However, if I am going to have to suspend logic and make a leap of faith, in order to accept a piece of dystopian fiction, I’ll stick to something with zombies in it…much more entertaining.
@Moon-howler
You can’t want to snuff Charlie, his parole hearings have too much comedic value.