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The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

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Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#21

Post by sokoloff »

Swizec wrote: post #9
function_seven wrote: post #3

All this complication around methods of execution baffles me. Why don’t we use a massive dose of fentanyl or some other opioid? I’ve got to be missing something, because that seems like a simple, one-step process that doesn’t risk the pain of paralytics and potassium chloride. I think the death penalty is a useless relic, but if we’re going to do it, why make it so bizarre?

I understand the desire to make it humane. But killing someone is not particularly humane in the first place. You also have to wonder about whether it’s worth making killing someone super humane since, you know, they’re gonna die anyway. So they have an unpleasant few seconds, or perhaps minutes, and then they’re dead. I mean, they just suffered some 10 years or more of imprisonment, often solitary, which is extremel…

It always struck me as odd that for lethal injection, the medical staff sterilized the needle site before hooking up the line.

Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#22

Post by tomatocracy »

onetimemanytime wrote: post #4

OK, USA has the death penalty. Good or bad that's another story. Meanwhile, just use a firing squad. Efficient and humane.

What's to say a particularly notorious criminal doesn't get the firing squad aiming a bit too far to the left (victim's right) to miss the heart and deliberately inflict additional suffering? I know there's more than one of them but still...

Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#23

Post by jjoonathan »

Swizec wrote: post #9
function_seven wrote: post #3

All this complication around methods of execution baffles me. Why don’t we use a massive dose of fentanyl or some other opioid? I’ve got to be missing something, because that seems like a simple, one-step process that doesn’t risk the pain of paralytics and potassium chloride. I think the death penalty is a useless relic, but if we’re going to do it, why make it so bizarre?

I understand the desire to make it humane. But killing someone is not particularly humane in the first place. You also have to wonder about whether it’s worth making killing someone super humane since, you know, they’re gonna die anyway. So they have an unpleasant few seconds, or perhaps minutes, and then they’re dead. I mean, they just suffered some 10 years or more of imprisonment, often solitary, which is extremel…

It has nothing to do with being humane and everything to do with appearing humane and, even more importantly, avoiding association with otherwise extremely similar killing. Shooting prisoners in the head would be humane, but it would invite comparison to terrorists, revolutionaries, and other unsavories. However warranted the comparisons are, dressing up executions in medical nonsense avoids them, so our government does it.

Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#24

Post by jetti »

Teknoman117 wrote: post #16

Regardless of one's view on the death penalty, I've always found allowing people to view an execution to be incredibly disturbing.

I feel the same way, but I guess allowing people to view the execution is a way to show the public that the person is in fact executed and the state didn't just say that the person was executed.

Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#25

Post by dmm »

Kaveren wrote: post #14
ams6110 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say use carbon monoxide. No taste or odor, no sense of suffocation, just a quiet loss of consciousness and then death.

Nitrogen gas appears to be what states* are looking into [1] [2]. [1] http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudenc... [2] http://time.com/3749879/nitrogen-gas-execution-oklahoma-leth... *Edit: Changed "statesn" to "states".

Nitrogen would be a lot safer for everyone else around. You can release lots of N2 in a reasonably ventilated room without harm but that's not the case with CO.

Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#26

Post by JoeAltmaier »

bodas wrote: post #18
function_seven wrote: post #3

All this complication around methods of execution baffles me. Why don’t we use a massive dose of fentanyl or some other opioid? I’ve got to be missing something, because that seems like a simple, one-step process that doesn’t risk the pain of paralytics and potassium chloride. I think the death penalty is a useless relic, but if we’re going to do it, why make it so bizarre?

The whole point of death penalties is to kill someone gruesomely as a warning to everyone else. Electric chairs do that, opioids not so much.

Yet 'getting the needle' is also used as a threat.

Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#27

Post by jacobsheehy »

bodas wrote: post #18
function_seven wrote: post #3

All this complication around methods of execution baffles me. Why don’t we use a massive dose of fentanyl or some other opioid? I’ve got to be missing something, because that seems like a simple, one-step process that doesn’t risk the pain of paralytics and potassium chloride. I think the death penalty is a useless relic, but if we’re going to do it, why make it so bizarre?

The whole point of death penalties is to kill someone gruesomely as a warning to everyone else. Electric chairs do that, opioids not so much.

Citation needed. From what I understand, 1) that theory is incorrect and the death penalty is not seen as a deterrent by potential future criminals (rather it may be the opposite) [citation coming]; and 2) Policymakers who say it is a deterrent are either lying or disinformed.

My understanding of the death penalty is that it is intended as violent punishment and is done gruesomely for the purposes of revenge. Read any thread online about a bad crime and you will see mobs of people calling for violent, public murders of the accused. It's human nature for a lot of people and something I think a civilized nation would immediately outlaw, especially ones that pride themselves on not doing "cruel and unusual punishment". I remember reading that the death penalty in the US doesn't fall under that category merely because of the 'and' clause and the relatively common nature of gruesome murders by the State in the US.

[citations]. It seems that states without the death penalty have lower murder rates, suggesting the opposite forces are true compared to your post (edit: i.e, it might even mean that a place with state-sanctioned/performed murder is more likely to have murders).

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death...

Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#29

Post by JoeAltmaier »

jacobsheehy wrote: post #27
bodas wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of death penalties is to kill someone gruesomely as a warning to everyone else. Electric chairs do that, opioids not so much.

Citation needed. From what I understand, 1) that theory is incorrect and the death penalty is not seen as a deterrent by potential future criminals (rather it may be the opposite) [citation coming]; and 2) Policymakers who say it is a deterrent are either lying or disinformed. My understanding of the death penalty is that it is intended as violent punishment and is done gruesomely for the purposes of revenge. Read an…

Agreed. But the death penalty still has the property that it avoids recidivism completely. Which is a deterrent of sorts.

Re: The Electric Chair That Might Soon Be Used in Tennessee

#30

Post by nrb »

jetti wrote: post #24
Teknoman117 wrote: post #16

Regardless of one's view on the death penalty, I've always found allowing people to view an execution to be incredibly disturbing.

I feel the same way, but I guess allowing people to view the execution is a way to show the public that the person is in fact executed and the state didn't just say that the person was executed.

Wouldn't viewing the deceased body have the same effect?
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