Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Botched Execution?

Oklahoma executed a prisoner last night, and the news weenies are calling it a botched execution.  I'm not sure how it is considered "botched", because they intended to execute him, and he's dead.
After the failure of a 20-minute attempt to execute him, Clayton Lockett was left to die of a heart attack in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma state penitentiary in McAlester. A lawyer said Lockett had effectively been “tortured to death”.>
For three minutes after the first drugs were delivered Lockett struggled violently, groaned and writhed, lifting his shoulders and head from the gurney. Some 16 minutes after the execution began, and without Lockett being declared dead, the blinds separating the chamber from the viewing room were closed. The process was called off shortly afterwards. Lockett died 43 minutes after the first executions drugs were administered.
It didn't go as smoothly as planned, but they did plan to kill him,and he's dead, so I'd call that a successful execution.  The usual suspects are outraged, but I don't see a lot of outrage about his crime, just the fact that Oklahoma didn't execute him painlessly.  Not that he gave much thought to his victim.

From all accounts, his victim was visiting a friend, when the condemned man burst in.  He raped her, kidnapped, her, then shot her.  She was buried alive by accomplices and succumbed to her wounds.   He said that he killed her because he was afraid that she'd alert the authorities.

So, because this poor guy suffered for about 43 minutes on the gurney, the whole prison defense industry is outraged?  It's not like the Oklahoma DOC intended for him to suffer, and the end result was his death.  I don't see a problem here.  They intended to kill him, and he's dead.  They're trying to figure out what went wrong, and hopefully, they'll get it right the next go-round.

Some are arguing that we should abolish the death penalty, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.  The death penalty serves a valid retributive purpose.  (Although I don't see the guillotine coming back.)  I'm not particularly a fan of the death penalty, but I do see that it serves a valid purpose, in such cases as when a person is absolutely guilty and there is any chance that a lesser sentence might not preclude the possibility of the prisoner ever being released.  As in the case of Wilbert Rideau killing Sarah Ferguson.  Wilbert is now a free man due to the vagaries of the legal system, and Ferguson is still dead.

3 comments:

Retired Spook said...

So, she's dead, and he's dead. Bet it took him longer to shuffle off than it did her. Bet she suffered more than he did.

They should probably be glad that I wasn't in charge. Otherwise, he'd still be breathing this time tomorrow. (But just barely.)

Jester said...

As I posted elsewhere, Well the drugs shut down things like the heart, for example and sliding away of a heart attack seems.. well like how it should go. So where is the groups for the victim? Oh wait, we live in a strange new land where the victim is less valued than the oppressor.

Old NFO said...

+1 on Jester... sigh