Public defender builds injection case

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: AP

FRANKFORT, Ky. - One of the biggest capital punishment cases to come before the U.S. Supreme Court in a generation was put together largely by a young, fresh-out-of-law-school member of Kentucky's overworked and underpaid corps of public defenders.

David Barron, 29, filed an appeal on behalf of two Kentucky death row inmates, arguing that the three-drug cocktail used in lethal injections across the country can cause excruciating pain, and thus amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.

After three years of long hours on Barron's part, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in the case on Jan. 7.

"I can't believe I've got a case before the Supreme Court and I'm not even 30 years old," Barron said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080101/ap_on_re_us/lethal_injection_lawyers

[liberalnurse]

1. I advocate for the insertion

of a PICC Line a day or two before the execution. Perfect access.

[rug]

2. Nice post Mengele.

[liberalnurse]

3. This would resolve the concerns

of pain with administration.

[rug]

4. Very kind of you.

[JeanGrey]

7. Works for me. I've had probably 30 surgeries and none of them

ever hurt me during surgery. I suggest they use the same stuff. Problem solved.

[superconnected]

5. I'm pretty sure this country only kills murders, so it's kinda hard for

me to feel about them having a painful death.

[TommyO]

8. How many "convicted murderers" have been set free because of wrongful convictions?

Quite a few, and that's more than enough reason to abolish the death penalty completely.

[superconnected]

15. True.

[alarimer]

18. It's well over 100 by now

I agree, we should abolish the death penalty for that reason alone. I also think it is cruel and barbaric.

[humbled_opinion]

11. Did you miss the

:sarcasm:

Tag or are you serious? If even one innocent is killed that is too many... How can you be totally sure... Look at some recent life cases that have been over turned due to new DNA evidence... How can you so callously throw away human life. Maybe you ought to look into the becoming a Republican that is their mantra save the tissues kill the humans..:banghead:

[superconnected]

16. Maybe you ought to look into over-reacting issues and getting them resolved.

I wasn't thinking of wrongful convictions.

Considering that, yes stop the death penalty.

Either way, it wouldn't make me need to look into becoming a republican. That statement, where you're jumping to vicious conclusions instantly and typing your insulting response to someone instead of coming up with a conversation point, reflects on you. I'm going to guess you always do that when you don't agree with someone. What a mindframe.

[AndyTiedye]

6. Do Away With Capital Punishment Like Most of the Rest of the Civilized World!

[Pavulon]

9. I would support the abolition of the death penalty

if they were all to serve natural like an a place similar to florence supermax.

If not put a mask over their face and use halo gas. Sleepy time, no side effect, no pain, just a permanent nap.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Abolish the death penalty altogether.

I wrote this when Wisconsin was discussing enacting a death penalty:

As an ex-field psychologist for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, I imagine I have met more murderers than the average citizen, and I have very little sympathy for them as a class of people. Nevertheless I oppose the death penalty. Why? I assure you that my position has absolutely nothing to do with tender feelings for anyone who would deliberately kill others. Rather, I am very worried about the consequences for the state as a whole if we enact a death penalty.

Four arguments are commonly made in opposition to the death penalty. Let me review them before moving on to the particular concerns I want to discuss. Here, then, are the traditional arguments:

First, we have no need for a death penalty to protect ourselves from murderers because Wisconsin law permits us to put them in prison for life without hope of ever being released.

Second, it is expensive to seek the death penalty. Studies in other states have shown that it costs more to sentence a murderer to death and then wade through the appeals process than it would have to simply imprison the criminal for life.

Third, there is always the possibility of executing an innocent person. Some people seem to think that the use of DNA evidence is an absolutely certain means of avoiding such errors, but that is simply not so. Any number of events, ranging from misbehavior on the part of police officers to errors at the crime lab, could bring about terrible miscarriages of justice.

And fourth, there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime. Just consider for a moment—can you imagine criminals thinking to themselves, “I want to go on a killing spree, but they will put me to death if they catch me, so I won’t do it. However, I would go out and murder a bunch of people if all I had to face was life without parole.”

If you think the death penalty is somehow going to make you safer, how do you explain this?—Murder rates per 100,000 population range from a low of 1.2 in Maine to a high of 13.0 in Louisiana. Twelve states, including Wisconsin, have no death penalty. The average murder rate for these states is 2.90. The remaining 38 states have the death penalty. Their murder rate per hundred thousand residents is 5.3. The probability of this being a chance result is less than one in a hundred.

At 3.3 murders per 100,000, Wisconsin has a slightly higher murder rate than the average for states without the death penalty, but considerably lower than the average for states with the death penalty. Why, then, should we be in any hurry to legalize the death penalty and thereby join the group of states with the higher murder rates?

Another question—Might there be something about having a death penalty that causes states to have a higher murder rate? As a psychologist, I think there may be a connection. Let us make no bones about it. To approve the death penalty is to assert that it is permissible for a large number of people—the state—to gang up and put one of its members to death. When a state authorizes executions, it is in effect saying that killing is not only permissible, but is in fact desirable, in some circumstances, including circumstances that do not involve immediate self-defense. Children learn both behaviors and attitudes by the example of their elders. From what we know of child development, there is every reason to imagine that children who grow up in a society that approves the killing of human beings will have lower inhibitions against killing than do children whose society teaches an absolute intolerance of killing.

Wisconsin has executed only one criminal since attaining statehood in 1848, and explicitly forbade the practice in 1853. This is a proud tradition that I believe to be worth keeping.

[minavasht]

13. About that "there is no evidence that the death penalty deters crime" thing

I did some research and it turns out that in Florida there were 35181 murders after 1976 and in the same time there were 67 executions.
Chances of being executed are what - 1 in 525?
Now, if the ratio was more like 1:1 we could talk about deterring effect of the death penalty.
If there is indisputable evidence (DNA, etc.) I don't really care how the executions are carried.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. You're ignoring the preponderance of my argument,

which has to do with the general brutalization of our society that results from killing people under any circumstances. You're also ignoring the fact that states with no death penalty have lower murder rates than those who execute people.

[Thor_MN]

17. I agree with most of what you say, but

1. I would have to point out that your experience is skewed towards those that deterrence has no effect. You have not met the people that the threat of punishment kept from crime because they are not in the correction system. Granted, your life outside of your work puts you in contact with these people, but it is hardly a topic of conversation.

2. Your assertion that putting in a death penalty would lead to higher murder rates in Wisconsin is wildly speculative. I don't propose conducting the experiment, I'm in favor of life without parole, but I really do not think that you can make a cause and effect case out of that. If you can back that with stats of increasing murders rates in states that have adopted the death penalty and decreasing rates in states that have dropped it, I would gladly stand corrected.

3. You claim that death penalty laws have no effect on people, but then claim that those same laws may cause people to become more likely to murder.

Once again, I agree with you, but think that your arguments could be better.

[intaglio]

12. Lethal injection involves 3 drugs

Sodium thiopental - causing unconsciousness
Pancuronium bromide or alcuronium chloride - causing general paralysis and cessation of breathing
Potassium chloride - stopping the heart

The theory is that the Sodium thiopental causes a deep enough unconciousness that
1) suffocating, followed by
2) the excruciating pain of Potassium chloride making it's way to the heart (likened to having a red hot poker pushed down your veins), and
3) the extreme trauma of a heart attack will not wake you, remembering
4) that whilst this is happening you are paralysed so you cannot scream or struggle

There is evidence that the theory is completely false.

But, hey, these people have been found guilty of murder by what is often a faulty process; so, as long as we don't know how they are suffering, that's OK.

In case you missed it the last sentence was :sarcasm: