Terminally Ill Man on Verge of Execution

[MannyGoldstein]

Source: The New York Times

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A death row inmate with terminal cancer was down to his final appeal Monday, the day before his execution, after a judge dismissed his claim that the state's lethal injection method unconstitutionally causes excruciating pain.

Death penalty opponents who question the need to execute someone who has as little as six months to live anyway have rallied around Jimmy Dale Bland, a two-time killer who shot his 62-year-old employer in the back of the head 11 years ago.

''It won't take much to kill him. He's half dead now,'' said Bud Welch of Oklahoma City, a board member of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty whose daughter was killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

...

Prosecutors have said Bland's medical condition is not grounds for clemency, and the victim's relatives also have said he does not deserve to die of natural causes.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Terminally-Ill-Execution.html

---

OK must be very, very proud.

[jaysunb]

1. Proud ? more like sick...

:evilfrown:

[ulysses]

2. quick! kill him before he dies!

:puke:

[PurityOfEssence]

13. That's what Scalia'd say

Retribution is everything.

[Divide Et Impera]

3. So what?

How is it that some of you on here are pro-choice and anti-death penalty?

Me, I'm pro-choice and pro-death penalty.

Stick the needle in and push the plunger down. Rot in hell....

[Bleys]

4. Because a fetus is not a person...

But an man in jail is a person.

Your argument is comparing apples to oranges... it just doesn't fly.

You can debate either the death penalty or abortion from either side legitimately, but linking them together is a fallacy.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[depakid]

15. Spoken like a "real American"

The kind the international community has grown to know and love over the past decade.

[LeighAnn]

16. What if he's innocent?

Like this poor guy in Missouri

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20070625-1103-execution-wrongman.html

Welcome to DU, OBTW :hi:

[lynne]

23. Then he shouldn't have confessed -

- as per the OP article.

[nutshell2002]

25. Confessions are not always reliable

According to "The Innocence Project,"

False Confessions: In MORE THAN 25% of DNA exoneration cases, innocent defendants made incriminating statements, delivered outright confessions or pled guilty.

...confessions are not always prompted by internal knowledge or actual guilt, but are sometimes motivated by external influences. Why do innocent people confess? A variety of factors can contribute to a false confession during a police interrogation. Many cases have included a combination of several of these causes.

They include:

duress
coercion
intoxication
diminished capacity
mental impairment
ignorance of the law
fear of violence
the actual infliction of harm
the threat of a harsh sentence
Misunderstanding the situation
Some false confessions can be explained by the mental state of the confessor.

See http://www.innocenceproject.org/understand/False-Confessions.php

[customerserviceguy]

14. And what did the fetus

do to deserve death? I believe that a person can forfeit the right to life. This turd did. It's too bad that we didn't execute him when he was in better health.

[Middle finga]

9. Dude state sponsored death to me is inhumane

1) There's been quite a few innocent people that were sent to death row our system is not bullet proof 2) Say you have two people stand trial for premeditaded murder one case a poor guy is accused and he get assigned a court appointed lawyer in another case a rich guy is accused but he hires a legal dream team. Based on real history who do you think is more likely to be sentenced to death and who more likely to beat the case.

[Sirveri]

5. Die slow of cancer, or quick of needle.

I think I'd seriously consider picking the needle, especially with a case of terminal cancer. Then again I guess it's not really his choice to make. It's kind of strange, almost like a what is the point scenario. Probably suck more to live though.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NinetySix]

6. Paging Dr. Kevorkian....

Honestly, the only difference between euthanasia and a state execution for this poor bastard is the EXCRUCIATING PAIN.

[Solo_in_MD]

11. Really? I thought Dr K and the states were using essentially the same recipe

[VTMechEngr]

12. euthanasia doesn't use Potassium Chloride n/t

[VTMechEngr]

7. Having watched someone die of cancer...

I think he's getting the better deal if he gets executed.

[evilkumquat]

17. I Have Selfish Reasons for Being Anti-Death Penalty

I would rather a thousand murderers escape the death penalty,

I would rather a million thieves escape imprisonment,

I would rather a billion criminals escape any penalties for their behavior,

than one innocent person be wrongly convicted (or executed) because for all I know that one person could be ME!

Evil Kumquat

[Tyler Durden]

29. Works for me....

But I'm on the no state sponsored murder bandwagon, too.

[lynne]

18. No matter if he dies from injection or cancer -

- he got to live 11 years longer than his victim did.

[emilyg]

20. Yes.

I have no sympathy for him.

[kurth]

19. A nice dose of morphine for him

and it'll be over.

[mitchum]

21. A nice dose of morphine in the back of the head would have a certain symmetry to it

[krispos42]

22. He should argue that it's euthanasia

Which is illegal in Texas, I believe.

[silverojo]

24. As if it'd be so much better to die from cancer....

Who's he trying to sh*t? He's only appealing his sentence to get revenge on the victim's family. He knows good and well that it's much easier to be humanely euthanized, than to die of cancer. He's just being a rotten SOB, right till the day he dies.

Let's address what this guy did to deserve being on death row. I can't imagine being shot in the back of the head was particularly painless. I'm sure the victim's family was a trifle upset, too. :sarcasm:

This cold-blooded murder deserves no compassion, and deserves to have his sentence carried out. If he didn't want the death penalty, the simple solution was NOT to blow somebody's head off in the first place.

God, how I wish people would have compassion for the victims and their families, for a change.

[razzleberry]

26. what special conditions deserve clemency?

founder of a gang?
being female?
27 years on death row?
overweight?
old?
ill?
Christian?
non-Christian?

[Mend]

27. it isn't about him, it is about us. It is about what is in our hearts and minds.

What he did to an innocent human being is about him. What we do to him is about us.

[niceypoo]

28. I guess they better hurry up and kill his ass before he dies...

Only in Amerikkka...