Poll: Is Lethal Injection "Cruel and Unusual Punishment?"

I meant to post this yesterday, I read this story in the Post and it kind of pisses me off. So, do you think Lethal Injection is "Cruel and Unusual Punishment?"

To me, it's probably one of the better ways to go, we could bring back public lynching, firing squads and ol' sparky to every state.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040101779.html

Va. Executions Are Put on Hold

Kaine Orders Halt Till U.S. Supreme Court Rules on Lethal Injections

By Tim Craig

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 2, 2008; B01

RICHMOND, April 1 -- Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Tuesday that he is halting all executions until the Supreme Court decides whether lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Kaine's announcement came as he stayed the April 8 execution of Edward N. Bell, who killed a police officer in Winchester in 1999. Along with the reprieve, Kaine said future executions will be put on hold until the Supreme Court rules in the case of Baze v. Rees. The case was argued in January, and a decision could come before the court adjourns in June.

"In order to provide guidance to courts, litigants and the public, it is my intention . . . to grant a temporary delay of any execution date in Virginia that has been set," Kaine (D) said in a statement.

The decision prompted concern from Republicans that Kaine, who opposes the death penalty, is trying to work toward a permanent moratorium, a contention that administration officials deny.

Bell's execution date has been changed to July 24. The scheduled May 27 execution of Kevin Green, who killed a Southern Virginia convenience store owner in 1998, will also be put on hold, according to the state attorney general's office.

The decision could also delay the execution of Robert Yarbrough, who killed a convenience store owner in 1997. Yarbrough's execution date has not been set, according to the attorney general's office.

Kaine's decision is largely symbolic because the Supreme Court has not allowed an execution since it took up Baze v. Rees. The case centers on challenges from two death-row inmates in Kentucky who say that their Eighth Amendment rights would be violated if they were to die by lethal injection.

The District does not allow the death penalty, and Maryland has, in effect, had a moratorium on capital punishment since 2006, when Maryland's highest court ruled that state procedures for lethal injections had not been properly adopted. Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has to issue new regulations, a step he has resisted. In recent weeks, both houses of the Maryland General Assembly have passed similar bills establishing a commission to study capital punishment.

In October, the Supreme Court stopped the execution of Virginia inmate Christopher Scott Emmett, who beat a co-worker to death with a brass lamp in Danville in 2001. Legal experts said the court's decision in that case signaled a nationwide halt to lethal injections until the justices decide Baze v. Rees.

Kaine said about 30 executions nationwide have been stayed since September, either by the Supreme Court, lower courts or governors. He said he is trying to instill more certainty in the process while officials await the court ruling.

"Stays in the final hours before an execution can take an emotional and physical toll on those who must prepare for the execution," Kaine said in explaining his ruling.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said several states, including Oklahoma, have stopped setting execution dates until the court rules.

"It is clear if you are going to have a lethal injection, you are going to have to wait until the Supreme Court rules, so there is no point in pushing it," Dieter said.

But Kaine's decision thrust him back into the debate over Virginia's use of capital punishment. Virginia trails only Texas in the number of executions carried out since 1976.

Although Kaine has allowed four executions to proceed, he has delayed several others since he took office in 2006.

Kaine has also twice vetoed legislation that would have made accomplices eligible for the death penalty. The legislation would have eliminated the "triggerman" rule, which says only a person who commits a killing in a capital murder case is eligible for the death penalty.

Last year, Kaine also vetoed a bill that would have made the killing of judges or witnesses a capital crime, arguing that Virginia already executes enough people. There have been 98 executions since 1976.

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) said that although he can understand Kaine's rationale for his vetoes, the governor's decision to halt scheduled executions goes against his campaign promise to carry out state law.

"It is a complete violation of his promise to the people of Virginia," Griffith said. "He said he would follow the law."

Griffith and Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell ®, an expected candidate for governor next year, said death-row inmates have the option of dying in the electric chair, although that option is rarely used.

"Death-row inmates affected by the governor's actions have yet to select a method of execution as Virginia law provides, and only lethal injection cases are at issue in the Baze case," McDonnell said. "A moratorium may unnecessarily delay justice in other Virginia cases."

But Douglas A. Berman, a sentencing expert at Ohio State University, said Kaine's action did not go far enough.

"If he wanted to be really bold, he could say, 'I am putting a moratorium on all executions for all of 2008,' " Berman said, "because even after the Supreme Court rules, we are going to have to take some time to figure out what it all means."

There should be another poll option that says: "The State cannot prove its not."

There should be another poll option that says: "The State cannot prove its not."

No double-negatives in my polls

Don't they give you another shot beforehand that basically knocks you out so you can't feel the pain induced by the lethal injection?

No double-negatives in my polls

im going to double negative your FACE when I see you!!

:laugh:

Seriously, I hope it is cruel. Most of those people are stone cold killers who feel little remorse until it is time for that last meal. Code of Hammurabi I believe states "eye for an eye".

I personally think we should still use the firing squad because it costs less and is a better way of killing someone. :2cents:

You should and the option of "I don't care if it's cruel and unusual or not, **** deserves to die"

Considering about 30 people die this way every year, it's not unusual.

The problem with the death sentence is that appeals are too expensive. I vote give em life in the electric chair.

Can we just hang em, it's cheap, snaps the neck and people can have cool job titles such as "hangmen" again.

Can we just hang em, it's cheap, snaps the neck and people can have cool job titles such as "hangmen" again.

amen brother

Can we just hang em, it's cheap, snaps the neck and people can have cool job titles such as "hangmen" again.

Imagine that on your resume too!!

June 07 - present

Hangman

The problem with the death sentence is that appeals are too expensive. I vote give em life in the electric chair.

Only problem is that guys like the President of Formula 1 might actually like it.

1. Cruel and Unusual would be inflicting greater suffering, fear, etc. than they did to the person that they killed. (e.g. They let you watch the sharks in a tank get hungry for a week or two, while periodically swinging you over it on a rope, and dipping you in, before the big drop.)

2. Justice would be killing them in the same manner that they took a life in.

3. Mercy is a quiet sterile environment, where you can make your peace with God or just think nasty thoughts, while the drugs shut you down.

4. Turning the other cheek is life in prison, with more food and bennies than many free citizens of the country enjoy.

Kaine did the right thing considering that this has become a serious issue of Constitutionality recently but honestly how much more humane can it get? If we're going to have the death penalty the guy has to DIE right?

Don't they give you another shot beforehand that basically knocks you out so you can't feel the pain induced by the lethal injection?

Yes, they do and that's what makes it so stupid. It's not hard to anesthetize someone. I don't know what formulation they're using, but seriously...if they're having a lot of people feeling stuff after the initial injection, the people administering it are retarded. Not that I'd mind the criminals suffering, but we don't want to give the pansy lobby anything to complain about.

The ONLY thing that can be considered cruel about lethal injection is that the drugs just shut your body down and you suffocate before you actually get the lethal part to it. But if anything that's a good thing and can serve as a deterrent.

If it were up to me, a "death sentence" would be assassination by sniper fire. The catch would be that you'd walk around prison not knowing when it would happen.

Like sentence a murderer too death and telling them the sentence will be carried out sometime between years 10-20.

I don't believe in the death penalty except for those already in for life...

But this is about the wussiest way to die.

I'd have no issue with the noose or firing squad.

Or

While you on appeal you get to guinnea pig the CDC in Maryland as work weekends.

My feelings on the issue: it is not cruel or unusual.

My feelings on the death penelty: Only tabled when there are 3 credible witnesses (non-criminals/co-defendents) or a DNA match. If sentenced to death, there will be one appeal at the convicted's expense. After appeal, 24 hours later the sentence is carried out by a single GSW to the head, charging the expense of the bullet to the deceased/deceased family. Family of the victim is the only body capable of staying the execution and comuting death to life with no parole.

So far as I'm concerned it's TOO humane. Personally I'd be much more for hanging, firing squads or other "cruel" and "inhumane" forms of punishment.

So far as I'm concerned it's TOO humane. Personally I'd be much more for hanging, firing squads or other "cruel" and "inhumane" forms of punishment.

maybe we should hang them slowly so they dont snap their neck and then take shots at them like they were a human pinata.

maybe we should hang them slowly so they dont snap their neck and then take shots at them like they were a human pinata.

Pinata? Shouldn't the criminally violent be handed bats to do the job rather than shooters. Might help let them get their aggressions out.

Perhaps we can just put them in a room with meth heads and knives, and tell them that the persons spine is made of recyclable metal.

Perhaps a good stoning would work. Fire the rocks from 10 jugs machines......

The only issue I have with executions is what it does to the person being executed family. I saw a show that showed the vitims family, the person being executed and his family. The punishment was so long and drawn out it hurt the family more than it hurt the person being executed. They need to make it much quicker.

So far as I'm concerned it's TOO humane. Personally I'd be much more for hanging, firing squads or other "cruel" and "inhumane" forms of punishment.

Make them read your "ask MSF a question" thread? :whoknows:

Just to clear up, the issue on this goes something like this: although several shots are given, there is SOME evidence that before the inmate dies, he is not unconcious, and he is not numb to anything. There is some evidence that the shot causes an extreme amount of pain before the inmate dies. However, because the inmate is under other sedation, he cannot physically scream, or in anyway relay the pain he is in.

So basically, there is some question as to whether this is basically a severe torture before the death.

And I'll try to rephrase my double negative now: "The burden is on the state to show its not."