The Cellar - If we're going to continue to execute people in the US...

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If we're going to continue to execute people in the US...

...we should probably get it right...from NBC:

Quote:

An Arizona execution took nearly two hours on Wednesday, and the prisoner's lawyers said he gasped and snorted for an hour.

The execution of double-murderer Joseph Wood — which Arizona carried out with a lethal-injection it had never before tried — is certain to fan the debate over how U.S. states carry out the death penalty.

"I've never witnessed an execution that took that long," defense lawyer Dale Baich told NBC News. "The state of Arizona today conducted a failed experiment."

Baich said there was no sound in the witness room, but "he was gasping and snorting for an hour and 40 minutes or so."

Some will argue that we do not need to be humane in putting people to death. I argue that we must be better than the people we are executing.

Quote:

Family members of the victims said they had no problems with the way the execution was carried out. ...

... On the day of the shooting, Wood went to the auto shop and waited for Dietz's father, who disapproved of his daughter's relationship with Wood, to get off the phone. Once the father hung up, Wood pulled out a revolver, shot him in the chest and then smiled.

Wood then turned his attention toward Debra Dietz, who was trying to telephone for help. Wood grabbed her by the neck and put his gun to her chest. She pleaded with him to spare her life. An employee heard Wood say, "I told you I was going to do it, I have to kill you." He then called her an expletive and fired two shots in her chest.

Not only was the convict a cold blooded murderer, taking nearly two hours to die was just plain rude.