Question about lethal injection

[Leafy3]

Grim subject, I know, but why is it seemingly so hard for prisons in the states to get it right? It's clearly an unpleasant way to go...Why don't they put the person under a general anaesthetic first?

We euthanise animals quickly & painlessly, why don't they (can't they?) use the same drugs on humans?

This - absolutely this.

It's all well and good killing the baddies today, but what if the political climate shifts and you and me and the other 'goodies' are the baddies tomorrow?

Governmental power is limited for a reason and that - in the UK at least, where I as a citizen have a say - must always include the prohibition of state-sanctioned murder.

I suspect it’s a Reform UK type.

Don’t they want a referendum
on the death penalty?

I was abused as a child, it would much rather my abuser spend his life in prison than die and not have to serve his sentence.

Also, should the executors now be given the death penalty? Seen as they have murdered people too?

Well I don’t think many would want to be an ‘executioner’…. It won’t be brought back in the U.K.

i also doubt many would get much further than the gatehouse of a U.K. prison.

Yes, just look at the Daily Mail comments section, or the occasional vox pops. Pierrepont also said he hanged people he and the prison authorities were certain were innocent; he wanted to make it as quick and painless as possible for them, even the guilty.

I didn’t suggest for a second that it was all the same. It is all state sanctioned though.

Hanging wasn’t perfect in the UK either, despite the propaganda. It didn’t always go… according to plan.

@Leafy3Pierrepoint was called “the haunted hangman” because he had reservations in his later years about his job. He also famously renounced the death penalty. Interesting essay on him here.

After his retirement this is what he said about the death penalty: “I have come to the conclusion that executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over the responsibility for revenge to other people ...The trouble with the death penalty has always been that nobody wanted it for everybody, but everybody differed about who should get off."

@LambriniBobInIsleworthISeesYa he wasn't wrong.
Do you have another link to that essay? The one you posted doesn't work and I'd like to read it

Just found this too- another interesting article that outlines what a mess the US execution system was 10yrs ago.

This one any good @leafy3?

If you have done something awful enough to be given the death penalty then you don't deserve a quick, painless death.

No.

Lock them up until they die in prison.

In the USA it’s called “life without parole”.

We have that in the UK where it’s called a “whole life sentence”.

@LambriniBobInIsleworthISeesYa thank you, yes :)

Really? So what do you suggest? And who will do it?

And, yet again, what if you haven't done anything? Do you think painfully murdering innocent people is just the price you have to pay for vengeance against the genuine criminals?

BlackGarlicTonkotsuWith3ExtraHalfEggs · Yesterday 23:30

If you have done something awful enough to be given the death penalty then you don't deserve a quick, painless death.

What if he shot someone in the head? Shoul he be dipped in and out of a tank of boiling water, until he's finished? (A punishment for at least one poisoner, under Henry VIII).

Who would do it? Sadists, that's who.

It's like when people get exultant about some bloke going to prison, hoping he'll be rated. Who does the raping of prisoners? A state sanctioned punisher? Or you know, rapists.

One of the problems I have with the death penalty as it works in the USA (the states that have it) is the number of appeals and the process of appealing gives the prisoner something to think about.

With life in prison the prisoner might just realise what they have done and the impact on the family / friends left behind.

I also think it is incredibly cruel for the family of the death row inmate.

I believe some people do not deserve to live, I also believe that doesn't give anyone permission to kill them.

🤦‍♀️ have you even read any of my comments or just this one?
Thats ok if you would rather your abuser sit in a cell only you can decide how you’d feel on that. If my child was abused I’d rather they die a painful death tbh but again I haven’t said I agree there should be a death penalty (just incase you haven’t bothered to read any further than that comment)

With life in prison the prisoner might just realise what they have done and the impact on the family / friends left behind.
I also think it is incredibly cruel for the family of the death row inmate.

Shame their victims don’t get that second chance, it’s also incredibly cruel for the victims family having to bury an innocent loved one.

Yes, I probably would feel that way too. Or I might not. Should I have a choice in what happens to the perpetrator? What if the child’s father and I think differently? What if I change my mind? That’s why we have a judicial system, not summary justice. Or a lynch mob.

I understand you asking those questions but surely those should be asked to someone who said they think the death penalty should exist?

I saw a detective show, fictional, the mother of the victim gave her impact statement and she said she felt sorry for the killer, for the terrible place he was going and hoped he'd have a long life. I thought that summed it up well.

Pierrepoint is an unreliable narrator. His eloquently ghost-written rejection of capital punishment was used to sell his autobiography (which is still an interesting read). Then when the funds were low, he "rediscovered" his support for the death penalty. Which is slightly sullied that as an hobbyist hangman he felt aggrieved that he wasn't paid expenses for a reprieved prisoner. Let's not get all misty eyed as if execution is some sort of hallowed vocation.

I would draw the attention of the thread to the specific example he gave in his rejection to the hangings of women. Because nothing has changed.

@SerendipityJane I don't believe anyone is getting remotely "misty eyed" about any form of execution