New single-drug lethal injection protocol

[MillCreek]

but they hold their breath anyway  following directions well and being smart being rare commodity in the death house

Ya gotta think that if they were good at following directions and being smart, they wouldn't be on Death Row.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

yea  it works like that

[Perd Hapley]

Ya gotta think that if they were good at following directions and being smart, they wouldn't be on Death Row.

Well I'm NOT gonna do what you say, even if it kills me!!

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Well I'm NOT gonna do what you say, even if it kills me!!

not in all cases but someone with that attitude would be one of the smarter guys

[Chuck Dye]

At the California gas chamber at San Quentin, the warden would recommend to the inmate that they take deep breaths to get it over with as soon as possible.  Trying to hold your breath only prolonged the process.

In a third pitcher (of beer) philosophy session, I and a bunch of fellow divers decided the way to go would be to hyperventilate until we heard the pellets hit the acid, breath hold to our limit to allow the concentration to build, then blow off our entire exhale capability and take a huge inhalation.  Cyanide is reputed to be damned painful.  We figured maximizing the first hit would minimize the agony.

Having had intravenous KCl injections and felt the very sharp pain of a therapeutic concentration, I can believe a massively lethal dose will hurt like...hell.

[taurusowner]

Have them do it Soviet style.  Have the inmate escorted to the wardens office to write an appeal for clemency to the governor, then once he is escorted back to his cell, the executioner is lying in wait to surprise him with a bullet to the head.

[BobR]

Over here on the east side we were treated to the following article headline. "In brief: Killer executed by one-drug cocktail". 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/sep/11/in-brief-killer-executed-by-one-drug-cocktail/

I personally believe a nice big dose of vecuronium given as a execution method would be fitting. Cruel and unusual, for sure. Fitting for the crime they did, probably. Allow them to lie there paralyzed until they use what O2 stores they have and then they can drift off.

bob

[sanglant]

or we could just use heroin. waited as long as i could.

[RoadKingLarry]

Good old fashioned Hemp.

[RocketMan]

Resurrect the old gas chamber, but do away with the cyanide gas.  Instead, seal the gas chamber and install an outflow valve preset for a relatively low flow.  Seat the condemned in the gas chamber.  Tell the condemned that he will be executed sometime during a fifteen minute window beginning at the scheduled execution time.
At a random point during the execution window, start noiselessly pumping N₂ into the chamber at a pressure high enough to quickly displace all ambient air in the chamber through the outflow valve.  As the N₂ displaces the ambient air volume in the chamber, the O₂ level will fall below a value that will sustain human life.  The condemned painlessly falls asleep and then shortly after will expire.
Telling the condemned only the time window during which he will be executed will defeat attempts at breath holding to delay death because they have no audible or visual cues as to when the actual execution has begun.
The sealing of the gas chamber no longer has to be perfect because N₂ is non-toxic, and normal ventilation in the viewing area will protect the observers from any slight leakage from the chamber.

[taurusowner]

If we are truly trying to be humane (something I am not entirely in favor of) we could just remodel the condemned's actual prison cell to be the execution chamber.  Make the cell absolutely airtight, with normal airflow being taken care of by vents.  Just wait until the condemned is asleep one night, and up the Nitrogen concentration until he just doesn't wake up, perhaps mixed with some other euphoria-causing gas if such thing is available so as his last moments are totally pain free.  Complete surprise, the condemned is already unconscious, no pain or trauma.  Just sleep that one night doesn't end.


Though I will say that I personally am in favor of the execution of violent and sadistic types being as painful as their victims had it.

[MechAg94]

The only thing you might feel with Nitrogen is that it might be cool since it will most likely be dry nitrogen.  However, if you are suddenly hit with 0% Oxygen, you would pass out before even realizing anything changed within a breath or so.  0% Oxygen will actually draw O2 out of your lungs.  Holding your breath would only work if you knew when the change took place. 

Also, that was one reason I mentioned mixing in nitrous beforehand.

[280plus]

Enough with the pleasant ways for violent criminals to die. Did any one ever see the movie where Hercules was forced to bear succesively larger amounts of weight on his shoulders and if he collapsed he would get it with a cleverly placed sword? That was a good one.   

[BrokenPaw]

What's the reason for the 3-drug protocol anyway? 

Don't veterinarians just use a massive overdose of anaesthetic when they euthanize animals?  That sounds just like the 1-drug protocol, and it seems to work fine.

[vaskidmark]

What's the reason for the 3-drug protocol anyway? 

Don't veterinarians just use a massive overdose of anaesthetic when they euthanize animals?  That sounds just like the 1-drug protocol, and it seems to work fine.

1.  Either anti-anxiety or mild sedative for tranquilizing effect.
2.  Heavier tranquilizer or anesthetic to induce general "you aint gonna feel a thing" state
3.  Fatal dose of heart stopper/breath stopper combination

The original 3-drug protocol was worked out by a combination of corrections system officials, representatives of the medical profession, and the Attorney General's Office.  Cost efficiency and effectiveness vs. humane because we aren't going to let anybody but a licensed MD inject drugs even into a condemned man because we might lose our monopoly on ordering the injecting of drugs vs. is this gonna violate the 8th or 14th Amendment?

Virginia had a legal rodeo a few years ago about putting a condemned man under general anesthesia to cut down to a vein (no surface sites available) before they actually injected him being a violation of the 8th Amendment.  Fortunately, the 4th Circuit ruled that it was neither cruel nor unusual (very good exposition on why not either) nor both cruel and unusual in the same breath, to do a cut-down procedure under general anesthesia.

What does not amaze me is that very few MDs employed by correctional systems are members of the AMA.  AMA opposes capital punishment and does not allow its members to participate in any way - no ordering of drugs, no writing out the orders to inject, no nothing related to the event.  Seems the docs decided (correctly, in my view) that among other things the paycheck was more important than being an AMA member, even if AMA membership is a prerequisite to all those specialty societies (Fellow of American Society of Facio-Maxial Rectal-Pedal Extractors* and the like).

The guy who pries your foot out of your mouth while your head is up your butt

stay safe.

[AJ Dual]

Have them do it Soviet style.  Have the inmate escorted to the wardens office to write an appeal for clemency to the governor, then once he is escorted back to his cell, the executioner is lying in wait to surprise him with a bullet to the head.

Anyone ever see "Citizen X" about Andrei Chikatilo?

He thinks it's some kind of routine move, to the showers, or whatever, and he's led into a room where there's nothing but a single light-bulb and a drain in the center of the floor. The guard says, "Please, do not turn around."

Bang.

[Phyphor]

OK....so we can bring Band-Aids to the guillotine, too....

No, no, a tourniquet!

[Northwoods]

'Course I still don't get why it needs to take so freaking long.  With the scum-bag from the OP there was no doubt about his guilt.  It went well beyond reasonable doubt.  In cases like that there should just be one appeal (to the state Supreme Court), and that should be within 1 year at the very most.  Just to make sure proper procedures are followed, and that there really was no room whatsoever for doubt.  Within a week of having the verdict and sentence affirmed he should be at the end of a rope, or up against a pile of sand. 

This crap of giving the guy 19 years to screw with the legal system, costing taxpayers untold millions of dollars, while getting most likely his own cell and enough food to be rather obese has got to stop.

Now, for cases where there is no reasonable doubt, but where one lacks incontrovertible proof of guilt (e.g. the freely given and corroborated confession of the accused, video tape, multiple independent eyewitnesses or otherwise caught in the act, etc) the sentence should be life at hard labor without any chance of parole.

[280plus]

Yea, here in CT it took 3 years just to get just ONE of the scumbags that killed the Cheshire family into a courtroom. Now he's having seizures and is urinating himself. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

'Course I still don't get why it needs to take so freaking long.  With the scum-bag from the OP there was no doubt about his guilt.  It went well beyond reasonable doubt.  In cases like that there should just be one appeal (to the state Supreme Court), and that should be within 1 year at the very most.  Just to make sure proper procedures are followed, and that there really was no room whatsoever for doubt.  Within a week of having the verdict and sentence affirmed he should be at the end of a rope, or up against a pile of sand. 

This crap of giving the guy 19 years to screw with the legal system, costing taxpayers untold millions of dollars, while getting most likely his own cell and enough food to be rather obese has got to stop.

Now, for cases where there is no reasonable doubt, but where one lacks incontrovertible proof of guilt (e.g. the freely given and corroborated confession of the accused, video tape, multiple independent eyewitnesses or otherwise caught in the act, etc) the sentence should be life at hard labor without any chance of parole.

i am pro death penalty

that said   this
http://www.truthinjustice.org/deathrow.htm
is what will make it extinct
during the wilder admin doug wilder did dna testing that clearly proved earl washington was not the murderer but in the name of political expediency  all wilder did was commute the sentence to life.  we need to seriously tighten up our system   put real sanctions of bad prosecutors cops and judges

[roo_ster]

we need to seriously tighten up our system   put real sanctions of bad prosecutors cops and judges

Pro d-penalty, too.

I am in 100% agreement.

We have, in some depts, an internal affairs section.  Prosecutors and judges should also feel the hot breath of such on their neck. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

aside from wilder proving he was a tool the worst one that comes to my mind was the prosecutor who convicted a man of poisoning his kids in florida. 20 plus years in prison a decade on death row  once within 20 mins of execution.  it comes out that he was innocent  the kids babysitter confessed on her deathbed.  and it comes out that the babysitter had poisoned her own kids decades before but she was never a suspect.  when the poor sob was set free the da, now judge, was interviewed and quoted "hell i convicted lots of less guilty folks than him!"  where i come from thats a shootable offense.  i think the land sharks would be less cavalier if the penalty in this case was doing the same time the wrongfully accused got and served, though i'm not against a solution with a caliber.  my own state, which i dearly love has much room for improvement.  currently about to execute a woman with an iq of 72 for a murder where the trigger man got a lessor sentence.  i'm less than comfortable with that.