Absolutely appalled by Kenneth Eugene Smith's execution

[Haunting10]

Appalled is too soft a word. I feel physically sick and angry.

What a sick world we live in.

I am against the death penalty. One person wrongly convicted and sentenced to death is too many. This particular case sounds like torture, and to use what the Nazis used on millions, its just disturbing on so many levels.

I keep thinking about it. But what can we do? I'm in UK, and expect any activism will be happening in US.

What will happen to the state of Alabama? Surely something must be done. This was not human.

Sorry, haven't got through the entire thread yet so don't know if it's been mentioned but there is a good podcast series on BBC sounds called "Killing Death Row" - part of the "Gangster" series.

I'm.sure an overdose of heroin would not be painful? Or a quick bullet (that would be messy)

But they are mentally ill

I have actually read that he chose this method after the botched lethal injection hoping that it wouldn't be allowed and the courts would stop it. Given that they'd already tried and failed with the injection he would be comuted to a life sentence. Dint work for him though.

I agree with the death penalty however this idea floor's me given that the nazis gassed so many people in this way. We shouldn't be using it and if this is the 'next method' given that companies are stopping selling the injection drugs, then people should be put under GA first so they know nothing about it.

Oh absolutely there would be that outrage, because it's not an existing law in this country and most people on MN live in the UK, so that's not a relevant point to my response to the poster saying that why are people commenting on something in the US 🙄

And yes, there may be less threads about the atrocities in other countries. But do you think if someone had posted on MN about a country that wasn't majority white essentially bringing back the gas chambers do you really think it would be full of posters saying "I would do it if they would pay me" and "I would so it for free"... Really...

Right because what the US really needs is more shootings to teach them that gun violence is a bad idea...

Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah use the firing squad for the death penalty.

I am opposed to the death penalty, even for serial killers and those such as Boris Johnson whose actions led to thousands of deaths.

At the very least those in Alabama who passed the laws permitting this method of carrying out the death penalty should never be allowed to set foot on UK soil, and the UK should be advocating other countries do the same.

And Mississippi has the highest gun crime of every state so I'm not sure how that's supposed to disprove my point

Are you willing to pull that trigger?

"I executed 62 people. I'm sorry": An executioner turned death-penalty opponent tells all | Salon.com

“If I had known what I’d have to go through as an executioner, I wouldn’t have done it. It took a lot out of me to do it. You can’t tell me I can take the life of people and go home and be normal.”

Prison Executioners Face Job-Related Trauma | Psychology Today Australia

Executions Create More Victims - Equal Justice USA (ejusa.org)
A new set of victims is created among the family members of the condemned who watch. I wondered most about the mothers who saw their sons being put to death. Some would just wail out crying. It’s a sound you’ll never hear any place else, an awful sound that sticks with you.— Jim Willet, former warden, Huntsville, Texas, who oversaw 89 executions

It wasn’t intended to disprove your point.

@LuluBlakey1 do you feel the same about children committing crimes? There are millions of children walking around everywhere (many unaccompanied!) having been deemed safe to do so. Yet there have been thousands of crimes committed by children every year, some of which were very violent. Yet when children are prosecuted rather than executing them or sending them to harsh prisons we send them to secure schools or much less strict young offenders institutes at the taxpayers expense. Surely this must also make you angry? I mean, they knowingly committed those crimes. Maybe we should preemptively incarcerate all children? After all, a greater proportion of minors than severely mentally ill people are prosecuted every day.

Does anyone know why a canula and sedatives can't be used before the lethal injection? I've read horror stories about not being able to find veins etc.

I'm not 100% sure but from what I've heard actual doctors and nurses will not attend and carry out executions...also drug companies don't want to supply drugs for executions.

You are just being goady. What a ridiculous suggestion.

Worked out well putting John Venables in a secure unit then releasing him though! However, Robert Thompson has been released many years ago and has coped well and we are told works, is married and has DC.

There are those who are helpable and can live productive, stable lives without killing anyone again and those who are so disturbed and evil they can never be helped- these are the people who should never be released.

My argument is, if they are, if they live amongst us and kill people then they should face the same consequences as anyone else and if it's a society where there is a death penalty, then that's the consequence.

At the minute the entirety of the risk of releasing people who have very serious, fragile, poorly-controlled, dangerous ,psychiatric disorders, into the community, falls on innocent members of the public who are entirely unaware and unprotected. That is what happened in Nottingham where 3 people were murdered and 3 seriously injured by a man carrying a backpack full of carefully purchased weapons, stabbed 3 people, repeatedly, to death, and who stole a van from one of his murdered victims and used it as an additional weapon to maim 3 more by driving it straight at them and leaving them for dead. He is a man who had an arrest warrant out for him because he committed a violent assault on a police officer, a man who had been reported several times as a concern because of his mental health and bizarre behaviours and had had previous treatment that he had not engaged with.
Should we lock him in a psychiatric hospital for 5 years and then release him because of the pressure on the system? It's pointless- he knew what he was doing. He made a choice. He prepared for it in a very detailed way. He took the lives of 3 people and maimed 3 more. His life can never be anything now but a burden on the State. If the death penalty existed in this country, I think he should face it.

Agree, if you can't accept the consequences, then don't commit the crime.

His poor victim had to suffer unimaginably- and her family live a life sentence.

At the minute the entirety of the risk of releasing people who have very serious, fragile, poorly-controlled, dangerous ,psychiatric disorders, into the community, falls on innocent members of the public

So we should just kill off seriously mentally ill people as a cost-saving measure rather than invest in secure psychiatric facilities?

My major reservation about the death penalty is the risk of wrongful conviction. The Jill Dando case springs to mind. Also a general unease at giving the state that level of power.
I can't get upset or feel sympathy for those executed where there is certainty that they commited their crimes though.

@LuluBlakey1 The point I am making, which you clearly didn’t get, is that people with serious mental illness aren’t fully responsible for their actions in the same way that children aren’t fully responsible for theirs. Yet you agree with the rehabilitation of violent children. Mentally ill people are ill. These illnesses are treatable with the right input-and even if not, you can’t hold someone culpable for an illness. It’s morally abhorrent for the state to euthanise individuals because they don’t want to pay for their treatment and support. Mentally ill people need more support not less.

All the arguments in favour of the death penalty ultimately boil down to revenge. The argument doesn't progress much beyond think of what the victim went through. Now I'm not minimising particular crimes.....nor am I saying the perpetrators don't deserve to die. I mean take child rapists and murderers? Do they deserve to die? I'd say so. They are vile scum.

But the crime is actually irrelevant imo. The state being allowed to kill people is really terrifying. Miscarriages of justice happen all the time...you may be pro death penalty but you maybe falsely accused one day or one of your loved ones...what then? Life imprisonment is a reasonable alternative and achieves the goal of keeping someone away from society and harming others.

The death penalty is a real stain on the USA...and puts them on a par with some real grotesque regimes.

We know it was cruel. We have witness evidence and it is a fact that it took time for him to die

But mental illness doesn't mean not sane, criminally responsible etc. So not all mental illness is all that relevant

Well obviously. There are varying degrees of severity as well as different mental health conditions. But a blanket I don't care about their mental illness is really unhelpful. In some scenarios it will be extremely important. Luckily we have actual experts and doctors rather than outraged daily mail readers dealing with these issues.

He knew where he was when he commited the crime that carries that punishment. America is not civilised.

Do you know how long it took Elizabeth Sennett his victim to die? Was it cruel to stab and beat her to death? 🤔