Today, December 7, is the 25th anniversary of the first use of lethal injection in an execution in the United States of America.
Back then, they believed that lethal injection would be a more humane alternative to the electric chair. Recent evidence suggests, however, that this is not the case.
So, to mark this gruesome anniversary, Larry Cox, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, released the following statement:
"In the past 25 years, the United States has carried out 929 executions by lethal injection. These include numerous botched executions that contradict the notion of a gentle death. Various autopsies have revealed severe, foot-long chemical burns, collapsed veins and multiple puncture marks on the skin. In some cases executions have lasted up to an hour, with prisoners visibly gasping for air or convulsing in visible pain.
"Texas was the first state to use lethal injection with the December 7, 1982 execution of Charlie Brooks. Since then almost half of such executions have been carried out in Texas, where the chemical mix has been used to put 405 human beings to death. Ironically, in 2003 Texas passed a law prohibiting the use of this very same cocktail to euthanize cats and dogs -- a ban that exists in law or in practice throughout most of the country. If this procedure is unacceptable for pets, clearly it is unacceptable for human beings.
"Furthermore, lethal injection has a corrosive effect on the medical profession, which finds itself reluctantly conscripted to play a lead role in state-sanctioned killing. Health professionals who have sworn to do no harm and to sustain human life are mired in an ethical morass when they must participate in a process that extinguishes it.
"In January the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments to determine if lethal injection constitutes 'cruel and unusual punishment.' Amnesty International maintains that lethal injection is a failed experiment designed to make the death penalty seem more sanitized and humane. At its core, this system is arbitrary, capricious, racially biased, and includes the very real potential of executing the innocent. It exacts a toll on all involved and can never be humane."
For more information on Amnesty International's work on the death penalty, please see: www.amnestyusa.org/abolish
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http://www.maryshawonline.com
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views appear regularly in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated.
Thank you for yet another great article that hopefully, raises the awareness and consciousness of all human beings. I hope that someday we can stop using violence as a misguided means to quell violence. It doesn't work - as well it shouldn't. There's enough brutality and suffering in this world without making it "legitimate" through legalization. I, for one, am humbled by the tireless work you do in addressing human rights and abuses.
by
Jan Baumgartner (49 articles, 136 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 243 comments)
on Friday, December 7, 2007 at 7:52:07 PM
I knew there were objections to 'the needle' as such but I didn't know the damage the chemicals and the time it took. To say this is barbaric is a gross understatement. For a country to admit to this number of executions by only one means is beyond obscene.
To go further and examine predominance off specific demographics (the poor the non- white) makes an outsider like me revolted at the injustice.
To then hear (Read) self righteous Americans pontificate how the US and their state in particular is the land of the free to the point they believe they have the right to impose their medieval views on other peoples is even beyond even my cynicism. The Good people of America ( of which there are obviously many) must whince in embarasement and such absolute iron age reasoning.
To further claim allegiance to a ‘peaceful’ religion like Christianity as justification is positively bizarre.
The puzzle to me is how these same good people aren't up in arms about what amounts to primativism of human sacrifice. Which Capital punishment clearly is.... Can anyone out there empirically show me how exections help a society? research after research show emphatically that there is no deterent factor. The only plausable option left is sacrificed to the god Vengence. Imagine a distant future anthopologist considering the practice of capital punishment. But wait! doesn't the Christian God say 'Vengence is mine..."
Without the fog of our emotions how is this any different to the practices of the iron aged bog people? or the witch trials of Salem? How did it go tie up the victim throw them in the well if they float etc. Where's the moral difference by doing it the otherway? By tying a poor non white to a pitiful defense and if he survives ' there's always next time' (quote from a Texas DA after a the justice program freed a black 'known' to the police) and if he doesn't this flawed outcome some how inviolatable and absolute proof of guilt guilt. How many have been saved by the justice program?
The USA has the highest rate of incarcerations per thousand of the population in the developed world causes me to wonder.What happened to the proud land of freedom, A land of opportunity and tolerance (if not acceptance)? Or is money realy the determinating factor in guilt it is in this justice (sic) system.
Doesn’t the average citizen know that Human rights and equal access justice isn’t some ethereal academic point that has little relevant to the self obsessed masses? These injustices are the harbingers of what is probably in store for them if they don’t stop being so myopically self righteous and realize “there but by the grace of my God and time go I
”Here endeth my sermon! Even after 30 years of activism on behalf of the rights of the individual my passion still gets the better of me sorry I guess you know all this and more. So many wrongs for you to right and so little time to do them in, keep up the good work.
I have one idea…Make me World Emperor…. I’d still be corrupt because I’m human but at least I’d unite the world …..In hating me... Vote 1 for me as World Emperor (Emperor Hedonistic 1) Slogan: “I can’t do any worse…. I’ll try hard though” What do you think?
by
Andris (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 532 comments)
on Friday, December 7, 2007 at 11:46:48 PM
