Many believe murder is unacceptable and inhumane. Wrong. Many Americans support the death penalty. Many believe lethal injection is a painless, effective way to justify a murder. Wrong, again. Lethal injection was certainly not painless nor effective for Ohio death-row inmate Romell Broom last September.
This man's horribly botched execution should not only raise the question of whether the state should proceed with further executions but should ask every state whether we should be sentencing people to death at all.
A recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center cited that Broom grimaced and winced with pain while Ohio's execution team plunged the needle into his body for nearly 2 hours.
They repeatedly went back to already-bruised areas and even hit a bone with the needle. When Broom was not covering his face with both hands, sobbing, he was helping executioners try to find a good vein by massaging his arms and pointing to veins. After the Ohio governor, Ted Strickland, ordered the execution to stop he made plans to delay attempts for at least 1 week while the team was consulted on how to more efficiently execute a man. At least with Russian roulette a person only has to hear the click of an empty gun chamber a few times.
Though Broom's case is a grotesque display of the death penalty in action, it is quite unusual. He returned to death row after the mishap. Prisoners who are the victims of botched executions often suffer through the mistake until the very end. The Death Penalty Information Center has an extensive list of these executions on its Web site dating all the way back to 1982.
In Florida in 2006, one man had to be administered two lethal injections to die. He grimaced and tried to mouth words after the initial dose. The Florida Department of Corrections claimed the first lethal injection failed because he had a liver disease.
However, the autopsy revealed the first attempt failed because the needle went through the man's vein and ejected the poisons into soft tissue.
Another botched execution in Florida, this time from an electric chair, left the blood of one man steadily seeping down his mouth forming a puddle on his chest the size of a dinner plate and oozing up through the buckle holes of the strap holding him to the chair even before he was pronounced dead.
Executions such as these and the many others like them would seem to be like the very acts they are serving as punishment for. It is ludicrous that a civilized state would be responsible for such barbaric treatment of prisoners, but sadly, legally they are responsible. It is legal because the citizens have not bothered to vote otherwise.
It is legal because most citizens are unaware of how common botched executions are.
Citizens are also vastly unaware of the cost surrounding capital punishment. Most people are under the impression that killing the inmate will be save the taxpayers money. Think about it, if the state no longer has to feed, house and clothe the inmate, money is automatically saved. Wrong. Money is not saved. A recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center suggests in the state of Florida taxpayers are paying an average of $51 million dollars per year more for killing inmates than they would keeping them incarcerated for life without parole. The millions of dollars saved annually could be spent on roads, schools and better law enforcement. If states were not horrified by the frequency of botched executions perhaps the present economic downturn would make them consider doing away with the death penalty.
If taxpayers want to continue to contribute considerably to the murderous fund known as capital punishment because they must see justice served by all means, let them. However, it is not unheard of for the wrong person to be executed. Luckily, the state does not condemn all of its citizens to death because they legally killed an innocent man. But then, there is no justice in that.
Stringent alternative sentencing can be enforced much more humanely and much cheaper than keeping the death penalty. Life without parole plus restitution for the victim's family would serve the justice sought by the public and prevent any more disastrous botched executions. If lawmakers and citizens cannot pluck up the moral courage to abolish capital punishment perhaps the graphic images of inmates bleeding, thrashing in pain and miserably pointing out good veins will persuade them to reconsider this barbaric allusion of justice.
Source: Editorial, The University (of Tennessee Chattanooga) Echo, Nov. 12, 2009
This man's horribly botched execution should not only raise the question of whether the state should proceed with further executions but should ask every state whether we should be sentencing people to death at all.
A recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center cited that Broom grimaced and winced with pain while Ohio's execution team plunged the needle into his body for nearly 2 hours.
They repeatedly went back to already-bruised areas and even hit a bone with the needle. When Broom was not covering his face with both hands, sobbing, he was helping executioners try to find a good vein by massaging his arms and pointing to veins. After the Ohio governor, Ted Strickland, ordered the execution to stop he made plans to delay attempts for at least 1 week while the team was consulted on how to more efficiently execute a man. At least with Russian roulette a person only has to hear the click of an empty gun chamber a few times.
Though Broom's case is a grotesque display of the death penalty in action, it is quite unusual. He returned to death row after the mishap. Prisoners who are the victims of botched executions often suffer through the mistake until the very end. The Death Penalty Information Center has an extensive list of these executions on its Web site dating all the way back to 1982.
In Florida in 2006, one man had to be administered two lethal injections to die. He grimaced and tried to mouth words after the initial dose. The Florida Department of Corrections claimed the first lethal injection failed because he had a liver disease.
However, the autopsy revealed the first attempt failed because the needle went through the man's vein and ejected the poisons into soft tissue.
Another botched execution in Florida, this time from an electric chair, left the blood of one man steadily seeping down his mouth forming a puddle on his chest the size of a dinner plate and oozing up through the buckle holes of the strap holding him to the chair even before he was pronounced dead.
Executions such as these and the many others like them would seem to be like the very acts they are serving as punishment for. It is ludicrous that a civilized state would be responsible for such barbaric treatment of prisoners, but sadly, legally they are responsible. It is legal because the citizens have not bothered to vote otherwise.
It is legal because most citizens are unaware of how common botched executions are.
Citizens are also vastly unaware of the cost surrounding capital punishment. Most people are under the impression that killing the inmate will be save the taxpayers money. Think about it, if the state no longer has to feed, house and clothe the inmate, money is automatically saved. Wrong. Money is not saved. A recent report by the Death Penalty Information Center suggests in the state of Florida taxpayers are paying an average of $51 million dollars per year more for killing inmates than they would keeping them incarcerated for life without parole. The millions of dollars saved annually could be spent on roads, schools and better law enforcement. If states were not horrified by the frequency of botched executions perhaps the present economic downturn would make them consider doing away with the death penalty.
If taxpayers want to continue to contribute considerably to the murderous fund known as capital punishment because they must see justice served by all means, let them. However, it is not unheard of for the wrong person to be executed. Luckily, the state does not condemn all of its citizens to death because they legally killed an innocent man. But then, there is no justice in that.
Stringent alternative sentencing can be enforced much more humanely and much cheaper than keeping the death penalty. Life without parole plus restitution for the victim's family would serve the justice sought by the public and prevent any more disastrous botched executions. If lawmakers and citizens cannot pluck up the moral courage to abolish capital punishment perhaps the graphic images of inmates bleeding, thrashing in pain and miserably pointing out good veins will persuade them to reconsider this barbaric allusion of justice.
Source: Editorial, The University (of Tennessee Chattanooga) Echo, Nov. 12, 2009
BBC: How to Kill a Human Being (1/5)
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