@joseph, maybe they should just let the hospitals do it. Separate the jobs, have one guy (anesthesiologist) to monitor and put him under, and then another guy to administer the paralyzing drug. What do you think? Another questions is what is the downside of NOT knowing what they use? Why are they hiding what they are using?

@janet, I think erics comments were insensitive and should of been kept to himself. But looking at the report, Lockett was brutal. After reading that, it makes you mad for what he did. There are two reactions i usually see, a reaction from people who are directly affected by this crime and another by people who are not directly affected.

@visitor 55 No, that is not what I was trying to say and considering that I based that upon your original comment where you said “And the dumbass doesn’t see how that makes him just as bad as those death penalty prisoners he hates.”. Frankly I’m surprised that you interpreted me as you did since you first equated Eric to Lockett and I gave you my reasons in my response why I don’t see any parallels between them.

I’m surprised, also, that you’re not interested in a factual account of the details published in the local newspaper. Especially considering that you were more than glad to equate the two men in question. I’m curious what equates them in your mind.

@visitor 55 This is a contemporaneous account from The Tulsa World:

“Testimony indicated that Neiman refused to give Lockett
the keys to her pickup truck or promise that she would not
go to police after her assailants beat and assaulted her.
Bobby Lee Bornt, one of those kidnapped, said Lockett
took Neiman to a shallow grave that one of the
co-defendants dug. Bornt said he saw a flash from a shotgun
that Lockett carried, and heard Neiman scream.
Bornt testified that Lockett came back to the road where
the co-defendants were holding Bornt and another female and
told them the shotgun was jammed. Lockett found a file in
Bornt’s truck and fixed the shotgun, and then returned to
Neiman, who was groaning. Bornt said he saw a second flash
of gunfire, and then heard no more groaning.
Bornt and his then 9-month-old son and the other girl
were released after promising they would not go to police.”

http://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/execute-murderer-jury-says/article_79a1985c-7167-5bce-aba1-09683afa960f.html

This appeared earlier in the article:

“The jury also recommended that Lockett serve 2,285 years
in prison on 18 counts of kidnapping, rape, sodomy and
robbery of three other victims, one an 18-year-old
girlfriend of Neiman’s.”

Perhaps you and I have different definitions and criteria of what constitutes “savage” but Lockett more than meets mine As a society we, through our elected governments, have decreed what we smaller segments ie at the state level, that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes. We have also decreed that only the most heinous of crimes are eligible for such an ultimate punishment and that extensive rules be used to review the process. We have also imposed mandates that no matter how heinous the crime the best that modern science has to offer be used to assure that execution itself be as humane and painless as possible.

I don’t consider that murder by the state. The only brutal savage murderer here is Lockett.

I agree that Lockett was entitled, under our laws, for the coup de grace to be administered while he was in a deep sleep. The fact that that failed due to a blown IV is unfortunate but not, IMO, de facto grounds to overturn the death penalty itself or for a long term halt to all executions. The very simple solution is to use a picc IV, which is routinely utilized in hospitals and even homes across the country.

My conclusions about all this are not swayed because Eric was being, well, Eric. I also don’t think that puts him anywhere closer to Lockett than that they both lived in the same world until very recently.

@ Visitor: Oh, I’m aware of the hypocrisy involved. Most death penalty proponents are nothing but hypocrites. They’re only interested in state-sanctioned murder (just like they are when they support sending our troops to fight wars that should never have begun).

@ Tom: No. Decapitation is no more humane than any of the other “traditional” forms of execution. That said though, lethal injection could be the most humane but the real problem here is that the “state” wants to keep the ingredients of their “cocktail” a secret and not even allow anyone to know the source of the drugs. Could you imagine what would happen if a number of diabetics were to die from insulin injections but the doctors were protected by the State from having to reveal the source/manufacturer of the insulin? Or a number of children died after getting vaccinations but no one was allowed to know who made the vaccines? And yet, denying anyone to know who’s supplying the drugs/chemicals for the “lethal injection cocktail” has been upheld by courts in several states. (Point worth noting: The condemned man had fought to find out the source of the drugs after somehow learning that the state was going to have to change the mix of drugs and he wanted to ensure that they weren’t tainted.) What do you think the reaction would be if it turned out that dogs and cats being “put to sleep” in animal shelters were whimpering and howling and otherwise exhibiting pain during the process? (Most of us pretty much know how animals react when they’re getting injections to prevent various diseases but our pets don’t spend more than a few minutes or so with the vets and assistants treating them; shelter animals usually spend days, even weeks, with the people taking care of them and are less likely to get as nervous.)

Eric, has a history of saying these type of things, I don’t know why this guy is still employed.
I always here people saying, “I hope i die in my sleep”. In this case it didn’t happen. People can react in different ways to drugs. Not everyone is the same. I can’t think of a full proof way that is humane.

@joseph, if decapitation was full proof, would that be the most humane of all methods?

Yeah, we should go back to hangings and firing squads for those convicted of hacking peoples telephones and bribing police officers.

I’m with Kieslowski on this one: execution by the State is just another form of murder aggravated by a most uncivilised sense of revenge. And Joseph is right about the fact that “There is NO foolproof form of execution”.

Civilised countries have eliminated the death penalty (aka State execution) from their legal system and that elimination has not resulted in the major upsurge in crime predicted by vengeful supporters of the death penalty. That’s revenge in their hearts, not justice.

Erickson further proves his complete failure to understand, well, anything. If he thinks that firing squads and hanging are many more precise, he needs to go back and look at the history of these particular methods of execution.

There is NO “foolproof” form of execution. Hanging, if done improperly, leads to the condemned being strangled to death. With the firing squad, unless the squad performs a “kill shot,” the condemned individual can wind up bleeding to death (and, depending on where the shot hit, that can be a very agonizing death). Hell, even the guillotine and the older forms of decapitation deaths weren’t foolproof—there’s plenty of documentation of people who had to suffer several blows from the axe before the head was finally severed and with the guillotine, there were plenty of cases where the condemned’s head was improperly fitted to the block so that the blade hit bone and slipped just enough so the head remained attached, just flopping around.

Disgusting.