Cruel and unusual?

[Brian Ellis]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/03/national/main1576011.shtml

This is a barbaric illustration of why I'm against capital punishment under all circumstances. A guy waits 22 years to be executed and then it takes the executioner 90 minutes of pain to do his job.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1550014.shtml gives indications that the Supreme Court is having second thoughts about lethal injections.

[Dr Mordrid]

Some would say not cruel enough.....

Dr. Mordrid

[GNEP]

Coincidentally, I saw The Exonerated last night at the theatre:

http://www.theexonerated.co.uk/ and http://www.theexonerated.com/

Sunny Jacobs was there and anwered questions afterwards, as it was a special charity gala evening for Reprieve, hosted by Clive Stafford Smith (http://www.reprieve.org.uk/ ). Very moving stuff, and I have to say, Sunny was an incredibly inspiring woman, full of life, very eloquent, and without a hint of bitterness but rather driven to change what she can. (She was played by Vanessa Redgrave for last night only).

[Brian Ellis]

Of course, the main reason for opposition to the barbarism of the state murdering convicted persons, apart from moral convictions such as I have, is that the exonerated probably represent only the tip of the iceberg of innocent persons who have been condemned to death. Thanks for the link to Smith's site, which is indeed interesting (unfortunately, you included ')' in the link and that doesn't work!).

On the subject of lethal injections, I found there http://www.reprieve.org.uk/resources_03.05.06_Blog.htm and this shows that this week's case of cruel punishment is, unfortunately, not a one-off.

[KvHagedorn]

What's wrong with this picture is that so much money is spent on prosecuting and processing these lowlives. Of course everyone wants to do everything humanly possible to avoid executing an innocent person, but when the government spends $40,000 of our tax dollars per convict per year to incarcerate people who break the law, one must ask oneself how many dreams have been murdered so that we can lock someone up for life rather than put a bullet in their head once they are found guilty and a reasonable process has been undertaken to determine that the trial was fair, the judge was fair, and so forth.

• While $40,000 will be spent housing a scumbag this year, someone with an IQ of 140 will be working at a McDonald's because he cannot afford to go to college.

• While $40,000 will be spent ensuring that some scumbag gets three squares and a warm bed, a whole family will be cold and undernourished though they have broken no laws.

• While $40,000 will be spent housing a scumbag this year, someone's mother will die of cancer due to lack of decent health coverage.

• While $40,000 will be spent housing a scumbag this year, millions of people will make far less than this by working hard for a living, while the government cares only for the greedy corporations that underpay them.

.. and while we're at it:

• While $40,000 will be spent each year for 7 years housing some poor young fool who punched a guy while he was on probation for doing a beer run, some smart kid won't be able to afford college and law school to become a judge that does not waste the public's money incarcerating kids on tomfoolery cases. (This was a real case.. I knew the guy, and the judge threw the book at him because his uncle had been a "bad egg too")

[Brian Ellis]

While $40,000 will be spent each year for 7 years housing some poor young fool who punched a guy while he was on probation for doing a beer run, some smart kid won't be able to afford college and law school to become a judge that does not waste the public's money incarcerating kids on tomfoolery cases. (This was a real case.. I knew the guy, and the judge threw the book at him because his uncle had been a "bad egg too")

So you would prefer this guy, rather than 7 years clink, would be shot through the head, after 22 years on death row for all the appeals going through due process?

You never cease to amaze me with your logic.

[GNEP]

Brian: sorry about the link... fixed now

KvH: the flip side was expressed by Sunny last night - someone asked her what help/compensation she received when she was set free. The answer was somewhat dismaying. She received a cheque for twenty dollars. She wanted to keep it as a reminder of the Kafka-esqe situation, but was too much in need so instead had a picture taken of it and cashed it. At the point she was let out, not only had her husband been wrongly executed, her children left permanently scarred and struggling (the daughter went into foster care - she was too young to remember what had actually happened so was left doubting her own mother's innocence all those years; the son could remember and lived with an uncle I think until he was 16 or so, but was left with no real education, and I think could be described as "troubled" having seen the legal system in which he grew up wrongly imprison his mother for all that time - he was 8 at the time of the shootings so knew his mother to be innocent)

Sunny also said that having been asked to speak at various events in the years afterwards, she always appealed to lawyers to help her get compensation. None offered. Eventually one took her to one side and explained that in Florida the compensation for wrongful imprisonment is capped at $100,000. And it would cost > 50% more than that to try and get it through the courts.