US execution

There should never be death sentence in my books and the US system of 'Death Row' in inhumane.
Punishment should only ever be a loss of liberty and societies privileges.. The 'liberties' should be on an incremental scale thus the most severe crimes such a murder, sexual violence etc should lead to near isolation and a highly regimented regime coupled with, in an ideal world, appropriate treatment.
Its one of the reasons I do not feel prisoners should be allowed to vote - they have rejected societies rules, so should not have the privilege of participating in that society's structure.

It is just too horrible to comprehend. So uncivillised.

Im agree gracesmum and HildaW. I find the whole death penalty,execution, death row thing quite sick. I watched the heartwrenching documentary recently with Trevor McDonald in an womens prison in America. One lady had been there from being 15 (I think she was in her 60's) and said she would never get out even though her crime was very questionable. The sentences seemed overly severe although I am not suggesting they should adopt the British system at all their penal system doesn't seem to work either.

Very hard to understand the mentality. When I was in the states once they were in the run up to the execution of a high profile criminal. Every new bulletin (they are very short) was dominated by how the execution would be performed, going over and over the details.
Plus the inevitable nonsense about how the execution would "give victims closure" .
This from a country that is very much more "christian" than the UK

Yes, I agree with HikdaW. The gruesome details of a death penalty show the barbarity of this punishment, whatever the method. If it had to be done, surely anaesthetic could have been used first. Thank goodness we don't have it here in the UK, although there was a clamour for such punishment in the discussions about Baby P and Daniel Pelka, I recall? Have those people had a change of mind? Hope so. Those who choose to carry out the death penalty are indeed uncivilised.

The whole justice system in the USA seems very 'pliable' to me.

Not that I am in any way in favour of the death penalty, as I have said several times before on here, but I have just been reading a few articles and comments from anaesthetists about the drug that was used, as I recognised it from its use in the palliative care of my sister, who died of cancer last year. Medazolim hydrochloride has been substituted because of a shortage of sodium pentathol in the US, it has been explained. Medazolim calms and sedates the person and knocks them out, so they are unaware of what is going on. It's the first of three drugs used. The next injection paralyses, and the last kills. I wonder if the reference to Medazolim being experimental is the media sensationalising an already horrific story? It's a tried, tested and effective drug in hospices, and apparently the dose given to this prisoner was three times stronger than needed.

They used to use suxamethonium chloride to paralyse prisoners before giving the lethal injection. It caused muscle spasm and fitting for about one minute before the paralyses set in and then it became impossible to breathe. Throughout this process the prisoner was fully conscious. I don't think they use this any more.

Yes. I doubt if he was conscious for the fifteen minutes.

You've made me think wheni'm64. If this was the men who did those cruel things to Baby P, then I would be glad for him to suffer like this. I have no pity for those people whatsoever.

God absent! Leave it out!

j08 I am not responsible for the disgusting penal system and means of capital punishment in the USA. I was merely describing what used to be the practice until it was fairly recently decided begrudgingly that the side effects were too awful.

I know absent.

Most of the people executed in America are Black and poor and could not afford decent legal representation. Quite often they are represented by students some of whom have never been in a court before. They are also kept in solitary confinement for years before being executed. The grounds for appeal are very limited and it is not like our system at all. To their credit some British student lawyers spend their summers trying to assist them in their appeals.

Whether or not one agrees with the Death Penalty the thing that has always appalled me about tha American system is the years that people spend on Death Row. I have seen people interviewed who were desperate to be executed because they couldn't stand the endless appeals, postponements and uncertainty. If you are in favour of a Death Penalty then a prompt execution would be the way to go. Endless years of waiting is just mental torture.

Is hanging or the guillotine any more humane?

I would expect both of these (if properly done) would at least be instantaneous, but I don't actually know whether severing the spinal cord stops all sensation - a medical person might be able to tell me,. cf chickens carrying on running around after their heads are chopped off

As sensation is registered in the brain, separating the head from the spinal cord by guillotine ought to stop all feeling. It is quick, anyway, that is an advantage. The moments leading up to it are still bound to be terrrifying, though.

I don't think any sort of capital punishment – from trampling with war elephants to lethal injections – is humane or justifiable. The guillotine was, of course, invented to be a more humane method of execution than beheading with an axe; it was certainly more efficient. The last person France decapitated with a guillotine was in the 1970s but capital punishment was abolished until François Mitterand did so in the 1980s. Only some 30 years ago – it's kind of hard to believe.

wasn't abolished until… Sorry!

Wasn't Monsieur Guillotine executed with his own invention?

Elegran No, it was a totally different Dr Guillotin who was decapitated by guillotine – an unhappy coincidence. Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was arrested at one point during the Reign of Terror but released after the death of Robespierre and died, so far as I recollect, from natural causes some time in the early nineteenth century.

Did anyone read the book/see the film The Executioners Song about Gary Gilmore who insisted on death by firing squad in the [I think] 1970's? Very powerful film that left quite an impression on me when I first saw it. Not sure how I'd feel seeing someone suffer so much even after they'd killed someone I loved; would I feel better/have closure? Really don't know.

I think too many people are quick to jump on the "Hanging is too good for them" bandwaggon but get squeamish at the detail. How I would feel if anyone I love had been the victim? Like Tegan I simply cannot imagine and pray that none of us here (or anywhere) is ever in that position.

The mistake we make is assuming that the USA is civilised country with people who share our culture and cultural values.

When DH was at work his job took him at times to some of the more 'redneck' areas of the US and he said he frequently felt more alien and unable to connect with people than when he went to more remote areas of Africa