Long Time in the Pokey
I was born here in Ohio, and I’ve lived here all my life. When it’s finally my time to be executed — whether for some terrible crime, or because a brutal totalitarian regime has seized power — well, that will probably be in Ohio, too.
I just hope that when my time comes, they do a better job than these two times:
The execution team stuck Christopher Newton at least 10 times with needles Thursday to insert the shunts where the chemicals are injected.
He died at 11:53 a.m., nearly two hours after the scheduled start of his execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. The process typically takes about 20 minutes.
“What is clear from today’s botched execution is that the state doesn’t know how to execute people without torturing them to death,” American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio attorney Carrie Davis said Thursday.
“Having one botched execution is too many; that Ohio has now had two botched executions in as many years is intolerable.”
Officials said the delay was due to Newton’s size — he weighed 265 pounds. In May 2006, the execution of Joseph Lewis Clark was delayed about 90 minutes because the team could not find a suitable vein. He was a longtime intravenous drug user.
From war-planning to hurricane relief to execution technique, incompetents are taking over more and more government functions.
I wonder if executioners would do better work if our lethal injections were done like an old-fashioned duel: if the executioner misses the first time, the prisoner gets a turn, and they keep trading places until somebody’s dead.