Lethal injection is cruel says Ohio judge, from his Che-Obama shrine.

Posted on June 13, 2008

A judge in Ohio says the state’s method of putting prisoners to death is unconstitutional because two of three drugs used in the lethal injection process can cause pain.
Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge said Tuesday the state’s lethal injection procedure doesn’t provide the quick and painless death required by Ohio law.

Burge said Ohio must stop allowing a combination of drugs and focus instead on a single, anesthetic drug.

Last time I heard someone whining about this, it was notorious Florida serial killer Danny Rolling, who brutally butchered college students in Gainesville. Here’s what I wrote:

Before he was executed, his lawyer submitted documents stating that the chemicals used during lethal injection ”cause extreme pain”. One, it’s lethal injection. We do this to pets all the time. You give them a little shot and they fall asleep forever and that’s extraordinarily painful?! Give me a break. And two, even if it is extraordinarily painful, who says he doesn’t deserve it?? In my opinion, lethal injection, no matter how ”painful” is not good enough for a monster like him. A couple of minutes of pain is not retribution for the pain, torturing, terror, and grief he caused to not only the victims but to their families as well.

His attorney also told the Associated Press in an interview that Rolling had told him, ”I don’t want to die, but it looks like I am going to die.” Oh, really?! I’m willing to bet that his victims didn’t want to die, either, but what kind of choice did they have in the matter? I mean, I guess they might have opened the door to him and said, ”Come in, do you have a knife? Because I think I’d like to be tortured and mutilated today,” but somehow I doubt it.

On top of this blatant hypocrisy, Rolling was fed an extravagant final meal of lobster tail, butterfly shrimp, a baked potato, iced tea, and strawberry cheesecake — exactly what he had requested. Did he extend that same courtesy to his victims? Somehow I don’t see him saying to Christa Hoyt, ”Before we get started, what would you like your final meal to be before you die?”

Excuse my political incorrectness here, but I don’t believe Daniel Rolling was punished at all — and certainly not in a way that was ”cruel and unusual”. He should’ve been made to suffer, minute for minute, exactly the same as his victims did. Being allowed to live in relative comfort for sixteen long years, fed a nice final meal of exactly what he requested, and then being executed by going to sleep forever is not punishment. Basically, in my opinion, he absolutely got away with his crimes.

And now we have yet another libtard crying over murderers being put to death, which I just don’t get. Seriously, how is it that liberals don’t get anywhere near as offended about the horrific crimes the animals have committed as they do about the damn death penalty?! So they get a few minutes of pain before they die. My response? Good. Let’s sign up rapists and child molesters while we’re at it. And then we should find a way to make the death penalty a little bit more relative to each scumbag’s crime. That’s how I feel about that, along with most other people who aren’t libtard morons.

How do I know this guy is a libtard moron, anyways?

From this picture of him in his office:

That picture says it all.

I can’t help but wonder how the good judge feels about the pain and suffering that good ‘ole Che caused to so many. Apparently, he approves of that. It’s causing pain to sick, heartless animals who kill innocent people that makes him cry. Nice.

And let’s not forget the Obama poster. I wonder, by making death a little bit easier and crusading for murderers, who exactly will that bring “hope” to? Other murderers? It certainly doesn’t make victims feel any better, that’s for damn sure. Douchebag.

Hat Tips: Rachel Lucas and Gabriel at Ace of Spades

» Filed Under Activist Judges, News

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3 Responses to “Lethal injection is cruel says Ohio judge, from his Che-Obama shrine.”

Libtard on June 14th, 2008 9:34 pm

how does revenge make you feel better? do you equate revenge with justice?
Dudley Sharp on June 15th, 2008 10:22 am

The judge will be overruled.

Lethal Injection: Current Controversies Resolved
Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters, contact info, below
updated 1/08

Several issues have come up with regard to lethal injection.

Generally, they are:
1) The murderer experiencing pain during execution;
2) The ethics of medical professionals participating in executions; and
3) Proper training of execution personnel.

1) PAIN AND LETHAL INJECTION

The evidence, including the immediate autopsy of executed serial murderer/rapist Michael Ross, supports that there is no pain within the lethal injection process.

There is a concern that some inmates may be conscious, but paralyzed, during execution, because one of the three drugs used may have worn off, prior to death.

First, there is rare evidence this may have occurred. There is a lot of speculation.

Secondly, if properly administered, it cannot occur with the properties and amounts of the chemicals used and within the time frame of an execution.

Thirdly, no one has explained how the first drug could have worn off, within the time frame of execution. Or, how is it that the first drug was, somehow, improperly administered, but the second and third were not, when using the same lines and procedures?

An Associated Press reporter correctly stated that “there is little to support those claims except a few anecdotes of inmates gasping and convulsing and an article in the British medical journal Lancet.” (AP, “Death penalty foes attack lethal-injection drug”, 7/5/05)

The British Medical Journal, The Lancet, published an article critical of lethal injection (Volume 365, 4/16/05). A follow up article, by essential the same group of researchers, published a similar report in PLoS Medicine on 4/24/07.

The articles did not/could not identify one case where evidence existed than an inmate was conscious during execution.

The Lancet article identified 21 cases of execution where the level of “post mortem” (after death) sodium thiopental was below that used in surgery and, therefore, may suggest consciousness was possible.

A more accurate description would be all but impossible.

A “long after execution” post mortem measurement of sodium thiopental is very different from a moment of death measurement.

Dr. Lydia Conlay, chair of the department of anesthesiology, Baylor College of Medicine (Texas Medical Center, Houston) said the extrapolation of postmortem sodium thiopental levels in the blood to those at the time of execution is by no means a proven method. “I just don’t think we can draw any conclusions from (the Lancet study) , one way or the other.”

Actually, we can. The science is well known. Sodium thiopental is absorbed rapidly into the body. Long after execution blood testing of those levels means absolutely nothing with regard to the levels at the time of execution. Nothing.

The Lancet article did not dispute the obvious – for executions, the sodium thiopental is administered in dosages roughly 10-20 times the amount necessary for sedation unconsciousness during surgical procedures.

Unconsciousness occurs within the first 30 seconds of the injection/execution process. The injection of the three drugs takes from 4-5 minutes. Death usually occurs within 6-7 minutes and is pronounced within 8-10 minutes.

The researchers also failed to note the much lower probability (impossibility?) that the murderer could be conscious, while all three drugs are coursing through the veins, concurrently.

Despite the Lancet article’s presumptions and omissions, there is no scientific evidence that consciousness with pain has occurred with the amounts and methods of injecting those three chemicals within the execution period.

The AP article also stated that “They (death penalty opponents) also attack lethal injection by saying that the steps to complete it haven’t been reviewed by medical professionals.”

That is both deceptive and irrelevant.

The unchallenged reality is that medical professionals have both reviewed and implemented injection procedures for decades. The same procedures are used in executions. Criminal justice professionals have been trained in this application.

Does anyone not know this?

The chemicals used in lethal injection, as well as their individual and collective results, at the dosages used, are also well known by medical and pharmacology professionals.

Dr. A. Jay Chapman, the former Oklahoma Medical Examiner, who created the protocol, consulted a toxicologist and two anesthesiologists. He states the obvious ” ‘ . . .it didn’t actually require much research because the three chemicals - a painkiller, a muscle-paralyzing agent and a heart-stopper - are well-known to physicians.’ ‘It is anesthetizing someone for a surgical procedure, but simply carried to an extreme.’ ‘If it is competently administered, there will be no question about this business of pain and suffering.’ “(”Lethal Injection Father Defends Creation”, Paul Ellias, Associated Press, 5/10/07)

Further, lethal injection is not a medical procedure, but the culmination of a judicial sentence carried out by criminal justice professionals, the result of which is intended as death, the outcome of every case.

The follow up research/article is ”Lethal Injection for Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation?”(Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine, 4/24/07). Dr. Koniaris was an author in both this and the Lancet article.

The question mark from the title says it all.

From the Conclusion:

” . . . our findings suggest that current lethal injection protocols “MAY” not reliably effect death through the mechanisms intended, indicating a failure of design and implementation. “IF” thiopental and potassium chloride fail to cause anesthesia and cardiac arrest, potentially aware inmates “COULD” die through pancuronium-induced asphyxiation.” (Underline, quote , caps and color change are mine, for emphasis)

In other words, the authors tell us they cannot prove this has ever happened. They are speculating.

In Belgium and the Netherlands, Pancuronium (the paralytic) is recommended in the protocol for euthanasia. After administering sodium thiopental to induce coma, Pancuronium is delivered in order to stop breathing.(1)

Exactly the first two drugs in lehtl injection.

Skip the speculation: Some Reality

From Hartford Courant, “Ross Autopsy Stirs Execution Debate—-Results Cited To Counter Talk Of Pre-Death Pain”, August 11, 2005

The below is a paraphrase of parts of that article, including some exact quotes.

Results of the autopsy done on serial killer Michael Ross are being cited by several prominent doctors to refute a highly publicized article that appeared in The Lancet, the British medical journal, in April, 2005.

Critics of the Lancet article say it does not account for postmortem redistribution of the anesthetic - thiopental. The redistribution, the critics say, accounts for the lower levels of thiopental on which Dr. Koniaris based his Lancet article conclusions that the levels of anesthetic were inadequate. The Ross autopsy results document this redistribution, bolstering the critics’ assertions.

Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, was aware of the controversial Lancet article before performing the Ross autopsy. As a result, he took the additional step of drawing a sample of Ross’s blood 20 minutes after he was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. May 13. Carver took a subsequent sample during the autopsy, which began about 7 hours later, at 9:40 a.m.

The 1st sample showed a concentration of 29.6 milligrams per liter of thiopental; the second sample showed a concentration of 9.4 milligrams per liter. The 1st sample was drawn from Ross’ right femoral artery, and the second from his heart, which can account for some of the discrepancy. But Dr. Mark Heath, a New York anesthesiologist and one of the numerous doctors who have signed letters to The Lancet challenging the Koniaris article, said it clearly substantiates the postmortem redistribution of the thiopental.

Dr. Jonathan Groner, a pediatric surgeon from Ohio said he interviewed a number of forensic toxicologists before adopting the view that thiopental in a corpse leaves the blood and is absorbed by the fat, causing blood samples taken hours after death to be an unreliable marker of the levels of thiopental in the body at the time of death.

Groner described the Ross autopsy results as “a powerful refutation” of the Lancet-Koniaris study.

Dr. Ashraf Mozayani, a forensic toxicologist with the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office in Texas, said the level of thiopental “drops quite a bit” after death. Even in the living, Mozayani said, thiopental levels decline rapidly after administration of the drug. She cited one study in which a patient was administered 400 milligrams of thiopental intravenously. After two minutes the concentration in the blood was measured at 28 milligrams, but dropped to 3 milligrams concentration 19 minutes after the anesthetic was injected.

Mozayani said the declining concentration of thiopental cited in the Ross autopsy report “make sense.”

On The Lancet article, she said, “I don’t think they have the whole story - the postmortem redistribution and all the other things they have to consider for postmortem testing.”

NOTE: I think they had and knew the whole story. They just didn’t include it in their report(s).

The Veterinary sidetrack

Opponents of the death penalty, as well as other uninformed or deceptive sources, have been stating that even vets do not use the paralytic agent in the euthanasia of animals. This is a perversion of the veterinary position, which actually provides support, however unintended, for the human execution process.
Some fact checking is in order — www(dot)avma.org/issues/animal_welfare/euthanasia.pdf

NOTE: That said, it might easier to have only a one drug - an anesthetic - execution and I am not sure why it isn’t being done, with the possible exceptions that I have read that it may result in 1) much longer execution time and 2) a deep coma, not death (1)

2. THE MEDICAL/ETHICAL DILEMMA

Medical groups cite that there is an ethical conflict for participation in the lethal injection process, because medical professionals have a requirement to “do no harm”.

Those ethical codes pertain to the medical profession, only, and to patients, only. Judicial execution is not part of the medical profession and death row inmates are not patients.

Doctors and nurses can be police and soldiers and can kill, when deemed appropriate, within those lines of duty and without violating the ethical codes of their medical profession. Similarly, medical professionals do not violate their codes of ethics, when acting as technical experts, for executions, in a criminal justice procedure.

Physicians are often part of double or triple blind studies where there is hope that the tested drugs may, someday, prove beneficial. The physicians and other researchers know that many patients, taking placebos or less effective drugs, will suffer more additional harm or death because they are not taking the subject drug or that the subject drug will actually harm or kill more patients than the placebo of other drugs used in the study.

Physicians knowingly harm individual patients, in direct contradiction to their “do no harm” oath.

For the greater good, those physicians sacrifice innocent, willing and brave patients. Of course, there have been medical experiments without consent and, even, today, they continue (”Critical Care Without Consent”, Washington Post, May 27, 2007; Page A01).

The greater good is irrelevant, from an ethical standpoint, if “Do no harm” means “do no harm”. Physicians knowingly make exceptions to their “do no harm” requirement, every day, within their profession, where that code actually does apply. And, they should. There are obvious moral and ethical nuances and we should consider and pay attention to them, as is done within the medical profession.

The “do no harm” has no ethical effect in a non medical context, because this ethical requirement is for medical treatments, only, and for patients, only.

For those who distort the Hippocratic oath, I would suggest they read the original, classic versions, which only prohibits abortion and euthanasia., two practices commonly accepted by many physicians.

The acknowledged anti death penalty editors of The Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine agree. They write:

“Execution by lethal injection, even if it uses tools of intensive care such as intravenous tubing and beeping heart monitors, has the same relationship to medicine that an executioner’s axe has to surgery.” (”Lethal Injection Is Not Humane”, PLoS, 4/24/07)

The PLoS Medicine editors have made the same point many of us have been making - similar acts and similar equipment do not establish any equivalence or connection.

There is no ethical connection between medicine and lethal injection. Therefore, there is no ethical prohibition for medical professionals to participate in executions.

To put it clearly: The execution of death row inmates is not equivalent or connected to the treatment of patients.

Is this a mystery?

Obviously, execution is not a medical treatment, but a criminal justice sanction. The basis for medical treatment is to improve the plight of the patient, for which the medical profession provides obvious and daily exceptions. The basis for execution is to carry out a criminal justice sentence where death is the sanction.

Justice, deterrence, retribution, just punishments, upholding the social contract, saving innocent life, etc., are all recognized as aspects of the death penalty, all dealing with the greater good.

Are murderers on death row willing participants? Of course. They willingly committed the crime and, therefore, willingly exposed themselves to the social contract of that jurisdiction.

Lethal injection is not a medical procedure. It is a criminal justice sanction authorized by law. Therefore, there is no ethical conflict with medical codes of conduct and medical personal participating in executions.

Any participation in executions by medical professionals should be a matter for their own personal conscience. In fact, 20-40% of doctors surveyed would participate in the execution process.

A side note:

40,000 to 100,000 innocents die, every year, in the US because of medical misadventure or improper medical treatment. (2)

Do no harm? The doctor doth protest too much, methinks.

There is no proof of an innocent executed in the US since 1900.

3. PROPER TRAINING

In every state, there are hundreds or thousands of people trained for IV application of drugs or the taking of blood. Even many hard core drug addicts are proficient in IV application.

There are very few errors in lethal injections which can be attributed to personnel error. The simple fact is that, if necessary, non medical personnel can be properly trained to mix and administer the chemicals used in lethal injection. But, it isn’t necessary.

It appears that some 500-1000 innocent patients die, every year, in the US, due to some type of medical misadventure, with anesthesia. (2)

I am unaware of evidence that shows criminal justice professionals are more likely to commit critical errors in the lethal injection process than are medical professionals in IV application.

Furthermore, even with errors in lethal injection, those cases resulted in the death of the inmate - the intended outcome for the guilty murderer.

In the errors of medical professionals, we are speaking of a large number of deaths and injuries to innocent patients - the opposite of the intended outcome.

1) The following is a Dutch protocol for parenteral (intravenous) administration to obtain euthanasia:
Intravenous administration is the most reliable and rapid way to accomplish euthanasia and therefore can be safely recommended. A coma is first induced by intravenous administration of 20 mg/kg sodium thiopental (Nesdonal) in a small volume (10 ml physiological saline). Then a triple intravenous dose of a non-depolarizing neuromuscular muscle relaxant is given, such as 20 mg pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) or 20 mg vecuronium bromide (Norcuron). The muscle relaxant should preferably be given intravenously, in order to ensure optimal availability. Only for pancuronium bromide (Pavulon) are there substantial indications that the agent may also be given intramuscularly in a dosage of 40 mg.

wweek.com/___ALL_OLD_HTML/euthanasics.html

2) “Deaths from Medical Misadventure”at
                   www(dot)wrongdiagnosis.com/m/medical_misadventure/deaths.htm
                   and
                  “Health Grades Quality Study: Patient Safety in American Hospitals, July 2004″
                  http://www.(dot)healthgrades.com/media/english/pdf/HG_Patient_Safety_Study_Final.pdf

originally written May, 2005. Updated as merited.

copyright 2005-2008

Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters
e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com, 713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas

Mr. Sharp has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS , VOA and many other TV and radio networks, on such programs as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, etc., has been quoted in newspapers throughout the world and is a published author.

A former opponent of capital punishment, he has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.

Pro death penalty sites

homicidesurvivors(dot)com/categories/Dudley%20Sharp%20-%20Justice%20Matters.aspx

www(dot)dpinfo.com
www(dot)cjlf.org/deathpenalty/DPinformation.htm
www(dot)clarkprosecutor.org/html/links/dplinks.htm
www(dot)coastda.com/archives.html
www(dot)lexingtonprosecutor.com/death_penalty_debate.htm
www(dot)prodeathpenalty.com
www(dot)yesdeathpenalty.com/deathpenalty_co
yesdeathpenalty.googlepages.com/home2 (Sweden)
www(dot)wesleylowe.com/cp.html

Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part, is approved with proper attribution.
Dudley Sharp on June 15th, 2008 10:43 am

The Death Penalty: Neither Hatred nor Revenge
Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters, contact info below

Death penalty opponents say that the death penalty has a foundation in hatred and revenge. Such is a false claim.

A death sentence requires pre existing statutes, trial and appeals, considerations of guilt and due process, to name but a few. Revenge requires none of these and, in fact, does not even require guilt or a crime.

The criminal justice system goes out of its way to take hatred and revenge out of the process. That is why we have a system of pre existing laws and legal procedures that offer extreme protections to defendants and those convicted and which limit punishments and prosecutions to specific crimes.

It is also why those directly affected by the murder are not allowed to be fact finders in the case.

The reality is that the pre trial, trial. appellate and executive clemency/commutation processes offer much much greater time, money and human resources to capital cases than they do to any other cases, meaning that the facts tell us that defendants and convicted murderers, subject to the death penalty, receive much greater care and concern than those not facing the death penalty - the opposite of a sytem marked with vengeance.

Calling executions a product of hatred and revenge is simply a way in which some death penalty opponents attempt to establish a sense of moral superiority. It can also be a transparent insult which results in additional hurt to those victim survivors who have already suffered so much and who believe that execution is the appropriate punishment for those who murdered their loved one(s).

Far from moral superiority, those who call capital punishment an expression of hatred and revenge are often exhibiting their contempt for those who believe differently than they do.

The pro death penalty position is based upon those who find that punishment just and appropriate under specific circumstances.

Those opposed to execution cannot prove a foundation of hatred and revenge for the death penalty any more than they can for any other punishment sought within a system such as that observed within the US - unless such opponents find all punishments a product of hatred and revenge - an unreasonable, unfounded position

Far from hatred and revenge, the death penalty represents our greatest condemnation for a crime of unequaled horror and consequence. Lesser punishments may suffice under some circumstances. A death sentence for certain heinous crimes is given in those special circumstances when a jury finds such is more just than a lesser sentence.

Less justice is not what we need.

A thorough review of the criminal justice system will often beg this question: Why have we chosen to be so generous to murderers and so contemptuous of the human rights and suffering of the victims and future victims?

The punishment of death is, in no way, a balancing between harm and punishment, because the victim did not deserve or earn their punishment, whereas the murderer has earned their own, deserved punishment by the free will action of violating societies laws and an individuals life and, thereby, voluntarily subjecting themselves to that jurisdictions judgment.

copyright 2001-2008 Dudley Sharp

Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters
e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com, 713-622-5491,
Houston, Texas

Mr. Sharp has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS , VOA and many other TV and radio networks, on such programs as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O’Reilly Factor, etc., has been quoted in newspapers throughout the world and is a published author.

A former opponent of capital punishment, he has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.

Pro death penalty sites

homicidesurvivors(dot)com/categories/Dudley%20Sharp%20-%20Justice%20Matters.aspx

www(dot)dpinfo.com
www(dot)cjlf.org/deathpenalty/DPinformation.htm
www(dot)clarkprosecutor.org/html/links/dplinks.htm
www(dot)coastda.com/archives.html
www(dot)lexingtonprosecutor.com/death_penalty_debate.htm
www(dot)prodeathpenalty.com
www(dot)yesdeathpenalty.com/deathpenalty_co
yesdeathpenalty.googlepages.com/home2 (Sweden)
www(dot)wesleylowe.com/cp.html

Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part, is approved with proper attribution.