Defense attorneys said the use of ketamine, fentanyl and potassium chloride could cause ‘excruciating suffering’
Utah officials said on Saturday that they are scrapping plans to use an untested lethal drug combination in next month’s planned execution of a man in a 1998 murder case. They will instead seek out a drug that’s been used previously in executions in numerous states.
Defense attorneys for Taberon Dave Honie, 49, had sued in state court to stop the use of the drug combination, saying it could cause the defendant “excruciating suffering”.
The execution scheduled for 8 August would be Utah’s first since the 2010 execution of Ronnie Lee Gardner, by firing squad.
So to preface, I am absolutely and without reservation against the death penalty, so any state-sanctioned murder is unacceptable to me.
That being said, if they’re going for painless, why not just a captive bolt stunner the their brain stem? Like, having them lie back in a massage table with a container for the blood (heaven forbid the audience should experience the discomfort of gore with their death spectacle), and just pop it when it’s time. Guaranteed to shut them off, mess is handled, suitable for a casket, and no suffering. They wouldn’t even have a chance to feel it.
And if the thought of putting a human down like cattle is disturbing to you, good. It should be, just like any other way we would keep somebody locked up waiting to be killed.
Honestly, the guillotine was the peak. Every new method since then is simply more for the viewers comfort than the actual person dyingz
Only problem with that is open caskets and decapitation like that isn’t instant. The brain is still alive for a bit.
I’m also against the death penalty entirely, but I’ve always wondered why they need to be conscious. Why can’t they put them under general anesthesia, then push the chemical while they’re unconscious?
That is, ideally, what they want to do. However, to do it properly you would need a doctor, and doctors won’t help because of the whole “do no harm” thing. Kind of against their whole thing.
Have you been to Utah? There’s probably a few “good Mormon” doctors who would do it, citing deep scripture regarding blood atonement and that kind of BS.
Because applying anesthesia is nor easy, requires years of education and a medical degree, and not anesthesiologist is going ti participate on it.
As a welder who has been trained to be very afraid of peacefully going to sleep in a forever nap, I have never understood why inert gas asphyxiation isn’t widely used. It’s literally easier than falling asleep and you can use the same gas over and over again.
Alabama tried that and managed to screw it up. You have to remove the carbon dioxide in the exhales to prevent the feeling of suffocation, and they didn’t provide enough nitrogen flow to do that. Took like twenty minutes of clearly desperate gasping and convulsions for the guy to pass.
I really agree. State sanctioned murder is unacceptable to me as well, but if they insist then let’s be humane about it.
“Whatever. As long as we get to kill a man who committed a crime more than 25 years later. Because that’s what we call Utah justice.”
Or maybe the state shouldn’t have the power of life and death over it’s citizens since you can’t unkill an innocent person.
Ye. I do think the death penalty has a place, but it’s for the most extreme cases where it is 100% obvious that not only did they do it, but them being alive is a threat
It happens, but is REALLY rare
Utah.
The Oklahoma of Arizona’s Texas.
Stop calling it “execution”. Call it what it is: Murder
Guillotine. Effective, repeatable, instantaneous.
But I think it overdose of marijuana should do the trick. Nobody would ever claim that was cruel.
Overdosing on THC is basically one long panic attack, which occurs waaaaaayyxy before you even come close to dieing. I think, some people might consider this cruel.
Pedantic, but:
The LD50 for THC is so hilariously high that you will physically lose the ability to move your body and consume more THC long, long before you reach a point of potential toxicity. From a technical standpoint there is no recorded event of a THC “overdose” ever occurring, like literally ever in human history, and boy have we been trying over the years. It’s easier to die from drinking too much water than consuming too much THC.
Now clearly what you’re referring to is just having had too much, “greening out” as the kids say, where you can gain a lot of anxiety and lose a lot of bodily control. And yes, that sucks, a lot. Panic attack city right there. But that’s not an overdose in the proper, dangerous sense of the term.
I only even bring this up because with cannabis being such a hot button political issue lately and being on the brink of federal legalization, accurate information about it is more important now than ever. And more often than not I usually see comments like this just replied to with “lol u can’t overdose on weed idiot” with no further context and that’s not helpful to anyone.
You can definitely take too much and have a bad time, but if you manage to find a way to legitimately overdose on THC, Willie Nelson would like to know your location.
You can definitely take too much and have a bad time
You’ve just alluded to a toxic reaction due to overdose. The term overdose does not exclusively refer to the median fatal dose, nor does it hinge on the risk of lethality.
