Alabama inmate coughs, heaves 13 minutes into execution

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Alabama inmate coughs, heaves 13 minutes into execution

Kim Chandler, Associated Press

Updated 3:22 am, Friday, December 9, 2016



ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — A man who killed an Alabama convenience store clerk more than two decades ago was put to death Thursday night, an execution that required two consciousness tests as the inmate heaved and coughed 13 minutes into the lethal injection.

Ronald Bert Smith Jr., 45, was pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m., about 30 minutes after the procedure began at the state prison in southwest Alabama.

Smith was convicted of capital murder in the Nov. 8, 1994, fatal shooting of Huntsville store clerk Casey Wilson. A jury voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life imprisonment, but a judge overrode that recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.

Smith heaved and coughed repeatedly, clenching his fists and raising his head at the beginning of the execution. A prison guard performed two consciousness checks before the final two lethal drugs were administered.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Alabama-scheduled-to-execute-man-for-clerk-s-1994-10782323.php

[Old Vet]

1. Iam so torn on this issue, This was just a straight up execution, Like his.

[George II]

5. One doesn't punish a person for committing a crime by committing the very same crime.

[NWCorona]

6. Agreed!

[Uponthegears]

3. I'm not torn at all

My moral compass does not point to the actionz of a (likely seriously disturbed) inmate for direction.

This was flat out torture and everyone involved needs to be placed where they cannot kill again.

[Tortmaster]

4. The Front Page of Yahoo reads ...

... "Justice Finally Served."

That's pretty sick. At least the AP story is entitled: "Alabama inmate coughs, heaves 13 minutes into execution."

Alabama gets just a little more like Ronald Bert Smith Jr. when it kills him.

[Loki]

7. If you are going to vote for the death penalty, and convict, then you need to watch it take place.

You don't get to sit in your comfortable home, and not witness and participate in the justice you have decided upon.

[avebury]

8. Americans have absolutely no right to claim to live in a

pro-life country as long as we continue to allow the death penalty.

Pro-life should mean that all life is sacred. You cannot claim to be pro-life and then pick and choose who lives and who dies.

I do not support what this guy did in the past or the heinous acts of others but I am totally against the death penalty.

I would recommend the book "Chasing Justice: My Story of Freeing Myself After Two Decades of Death Row for a Crime I Didn't Commit." by Kerry Max Cook.

I do not trust the justice system in this country. Former SC Justice Scalia stated once, to paraphrase, Future evidence of innocence is not enough to take a death row inmate out of death row. That inmate had his day in court and was convicted.

If you put someone on death row and then later on find out that the guy is innocent, execution should not be the answer. There should not even be a discussion, take the guy out of death row.

A have a huge problem witht the fact that there are some innocent people who find themselves on Death Row, some of whom who have been executed. That is a bell that can never be un-rung. I look upon executions as a third world activity in what should be a modern world.

[George II]

9. For many people their opinions on the death penalty AND abortion are justified by their so-called...

...."religious beliefs".

Invariably they contradict each other on these two issues - pro-life in the case of abortion, anti-life in the case of the death penalty.

When confronted and asked to explain their contradictory positions, most are unable to.

On the issue of the death penalty, I look at it this way (as stated earlier above) - one doesn't punish someone for committing a crime by committing the very same crime.

Spiritually speaking, we can also look at it this way:

If there is an eternal after-life, God will certainly punish anyone who commits the crime of murder much more severely than a state can by killing that person here on earth. And that punishment will last for eternity, a much longer time period than shortening that person's life by 10, 20, 30 or more years. Thirty years is incomparable to eternity.

And we are taught by the Bible that the human body is the "Temple of God", and mere mortals have no right to destroy something that was created by God.

If there isn't an after-life, then essentially when the criminal dies "everything is over"! So by shortening his life instead of imprisoning him for those 10, 20, 30, or more, the state is essentially putting him out of his misery early than if he lived his normal life-span in prison.

Unfortunately very few people look at these things as rationally as they do.

[branford]

29. I'm pro-choice and pro-capital punishment,

just like a great many other Democrats.

It's actually quite easy to reconcile being against abortion and for the death penalty, and failure to acknowledge this simple understanding does not help anti-capital punishment advocacy.

For those who are pro-life, abortion is the murder of an innocent child. The emphasis on the "innocent." The death penalty is a punishment inflicted on an individual found guilty of a heinous crime. The emphasis on the "guilty" and "heinous crime." Generally, most people who are pro-life, including many individuals who justify their beliefs with classic religion, advocate the protection of innocent life, a category those convicted of aggravated murder definitely do not belong. As to whether the Bible permits capital punishment, it is replete with examples of such for even "minor" crimes.

Questioning or trying to re-characterize someone else's religious beliefs is a fool's errand. The greatest argument against capital punishment is not that the offender is not deserving of his or her fate, but rather whether sufficient safeguards and due process exist to ensure those who are executed are actually guilty.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. But on the plus side, because of this, no one will ever murder another person again!

Just like every other time the state has killed a person for the act of killing people!

[George II]

12. Actually a study was done back in the 1970s that showed states with the death penalty....

....had a higher murder rate than those without it, and it was later learned that the murder rate went down in some states that abolished it.

I wish I knew the right search term to find that report and data.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. Of course.

Because the death penalty is a bullshit institution with no real justification and yet we insist on keeping around pretending that it qualifies as "justice."

[NWCorona]

17. Here is the study you mentioned

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~chance/teaching_aids/books_articles/JLpaper.pdf

Then there is this graphic.

[George II]

19. That was quick - thanks very much! I'll have to save that for future use. That's a later study....

....that I wasn't aware of.

That graphic sums it up perfectly, too.

[graegoyle]

24. (That post was sarcastic)

(I am pretty certain that poster does not believe that the death penalty acts as a deterrent.)

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. This is just plain awful.

One of the problems I have with these executions is that they are executing a man for a crime he committed 20 years ago. Often the person they kill is not even the same person they were 20 years ago. Many of them really try to turn their lives around while they are on prison.

[scscholar]

28. Good point about the 20 years ago part

It's sad that the lawyer class drags these things out so long so that they can make so much profit.

[Elmergantry]

13. bullet to the back of the head

Is a lot more effcient, effective and less expensive.

Yes you cant be pro death penalty and pro life. Im consistant. Pro choice and pro death penalty!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

15. Or you could just do away with the death penalty. nt

[Elmergantry]

16. nah

Subhumans dont have a right to exist. Some are that by choice (murderers) some by design-fetuses-are not real persons. Soooo its up to the law in the case of the murderers, or by the incubator (potential mother)to decide the right to exist or not.

[NWCorona]

18. I see two problems with that.

1. Lady justice isn't blind and there have been documented cases of innocent people being put to death.

2. Who decides who is a subhuman? That is a slope I'll gladly stay off of. If you say the courts I will ask you to circle back to point #1

[George II]

21. Was about to say the same thing as you (i.e., your point #2)....

...if being "subhuman" is the determining factor in applying the death penalty, obviously in southern states the criteria for determining "subhuman" is different than northern states.

Unfortunately down south there's a racial factor as well.

[NWCorona]

23. Exactly!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

20. Or you could just do away with the death penalty.

Seriously, there's no excuse for it.

[George II]

22. Only God determines who has a right to exist.

[Elmergantry]

25. until he comes down

To make the call it is the sc who determines who is a person worthy of life and who is not. Right now it says those not having a right to life are the unborn and murderers depending on the circumstances of the crime.

Fine with me

[arithia]

26. this man's death was f*cked on a number of levels

https://thinkprogress.org/a-man-died-last-night-who-probably-would-have-lived-if-donald-trump-had-lost-6cb3f094da30#.nv3by4w80

Dude was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by a jury. Judge overruled the jury. The Supremes previously ruled, nearly unanimously, that only a jury could decide if the death penalty should apply. Upon appeal last night, the conservative jurists went against their own precedent and said that it was ok to kill the dude.

Apparently they even usually give the condemned a courtesy vote to stay the execution while the case is being decided. No such luck here. They punted and a human being spent his final moments in agony. Sad.

[elleng]

27. Specializing in cruel and unusual punishment