(2006-12-16) — After a botched execution that took 34 minutes to end a convicted murderer’s life, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has suspended all death sentences until a commission can review lethal-injection procedures “to ensure they don’t inflict cruel and unusual punishment on their helpless victims.”
In a gesture of goodwill, Florida’s leading association of murderers also announced a temporary hold on premeditated and/or serial killings as well as brutal rapes, according to a spokesman, “until we can determine if some of our victims experience discomfort or pain.”
The Sunshine State Coalition of Capital Criminals released the statement through its ACLU attorney, pledging “a full-out investigation of our procedures to determine their constitutionality.”
Concerns about the comfort of the state’s execution method revived this week when Angel Nieves Diaz, who spent more than two and a half decades on death row for a 1979 murder, seemed to clench his jaw and grimace during the normally-painless death penalty procedure.
The eighth amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishments, however experts note that 27 years on death row is not unusual.
43 responses so far ↓
1 Scott Ott // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:08 am
Florida Lethal Injections, Murders Put on Hold…
by Scott Ott(2006-12-16) — After a botched execution that took 34 minutes to end a convicted murderer’s life, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has suspended all death sentences until a commission can review lethal-injection procedures “to ensure they don’…
2 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:11 am
God Bless America
3 gafisher // Dec 16, 2006 at 8:00 am
Sounds like a Dress Rehearsal for the Democrat “Defense Strategy.”
4 Analchord // Dec 16, 2006 at 8:12 am
I’ve always said that I dont want no part of no killin’ unless it’s good, clean killin’. So, when you hang a man, you better look at ‘im. But, to be honest, I’m a hypocrite. It’s like how I tell my old man everytime I see him now…….”I’m scared a dyin’, Pa! I’m scared a dyin’!!” He always just looks disgusted and disappointed in me and replies, “I aint your pawww!” Then he uncocks the pistol he’s holding on me, and we go about having dinner. Pass the bisquits, pa.
5 Blogrolling 2006-12-16 | Basil's Blog // Dec 16, 2006 at 8:21 am
[…] ScrappleFace finds all the killing in the sunshine state has stopped. […]
6 Tinman // Dec 16, 2006 at 9:09 am
It could be they weren’t sterilizing their needles.
7 Tinman // Dec 16, 2006 at 9:15 am
I’m not making this up.
Florida got rid of the electric chair after two inmates’ heads caught fire during executions in the 1990s and another suffered a severe nosebleed in 2000.
8 Crazy Politicos Rantings // Dec 16, 2006 at 9:47 am
Something for Congress to Fix…
There is something I’d like to see the Congress fix, or more appropriately, define, for the judges in our country. That something can be found in the 8th Amendment to the US Constitution….
9 Analchord // Dec 16, 2006 at 10:07 am
The electric chair was born in ignorance: Thomas Edison and his direct current. He wanted to convince the American People that Alternating Current was too dangerous so he electrocuted an elephant with it to frighten consumers into buying his direct current grid for power and wasted his prime playing out a lost cause.
Similarly, after Alexander Graham Bell stole the wright brother’s copyright, the Wright Brothers wasted their prime in court trying to stop Bell.
You see, Bell had a monopoly on the phone industry. The Wright Brothers expected to have a similar monopoly on the flight industry, but Bell decided that you could make a “picnic table fly if it had enough power”, and simply refused to respect the copyright.
BTW: that’s the standard of aerodynamic safety the industry started with: a picnic table, and that’s why modern planes just spiral out of the sky for “no reason” and crash keeling everyone for miles around.
That’s also the reason the tail can just break off, you see, Bell moved the horizontal stabilizer (the stab) to the rear of the plane, when it is supposed to be up front. Why? Because a rear stab focuses too much force on a narrowing and thus flimsy piece of the tail. The tail of any plane is thus forced to endure stress coming from every point of dimentional space. It’s too much. No metal can withstand that kind of torture, and the tail will just break off, (if the pilot is dumb enough to press that button right there, at the wrong time).
That’s what happened to Von Richtoven in WW1: What ever you do, Von Richtoven, dont press dat button ven you go into a dive. “Unt Vy not?” Cause you will explodenheimer. “I dont believesen du, unt I vill pressin das button venever Ich vantsen.”
The baron took off on that fateful day, and he was soon shootzen downen der Camels mit der vunderful display of gedogfightenheimer. Zen, he vent into a steep dive to getzen away from an enemy ace. He though, “Ich vill pressen ze button now cause Ich been Ein uberberliner!”
That’s what kilt the great von richtoven. Bell’s greed.
10 mig // Dec 16, 2006 at 10:28 am
Jeb Bush should seek out Dr. Death: Jack Kevorkian, he assisted in lots of ’suicides’ cuz dying is not a crime! He even was a consultant on dying so he has lots to offer.
Go Jack!
11 RedPepper // Dec 16, 2006 at 10:48 am
Tinman #6: Maybe we need a needle exchange program …
12 CalGirl // Dec 16, 2006 at 10:53 am
It is amazing to me that anyone even cares that a convicted murderer would suffer a bit of discomfort during his/her execution. Of all the things to be concerned about, that’s not one of the top, oh, say 100 or so things.
13 Analchord // Dec 16, 2006 at 11:11 am
That’s cold, CalGirl, but I agree with you. I dont understand murder. So I think we need to murder the murderers till they scream bloody murder and are murdered to death by murdering the murderers of the murdered.
Now I’m hungry. go figure.
14 da Bunny // Dec 16, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Why don’t we just let all these poor “death-row” people out of prison, now? I mean…haven’t they suffered enough? There’s the stress of sitting around waiting to die for almost 3 decades, they’ve had negative press to contend with, and they probably ALL had bad childhoods. We can’t continue victimizing them any longer. Where’s our compassion as a society?
Signed,
A liberal, ACLU Puke
15 camojack // Dec 16, 2006 at 12:17 pm
They should have done it humanely, like how they executed Terry Schiavo.
R-i-g-h-t…
16 Fred Sinclair // Dec 16, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Meine Pfeife!
Wenn die Liebe kalt wird
Warmt mich dein Feuer noch imer
Wenn die Freunde geflohen sind
erfreut mich deine Gegenwart.
Wenn du gefullt bist und mein
Geldbuetel leer, ich rauche
und werfe alle Sorgen uber Bord.
Heirborn Ranger
17 kajun // Dec 16, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Sprekchen ze American; amigo!
18 sojourner // Dec 16, 2006 at 1:23 pm
“The eighth amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits ‘cruel and unusual’ punishments, however experts note that 27 years on death row is not unusual.” 27 years on death row is cruel to both the prisoner and to the society which interminably supports them.
19 GnuCarSmell // Dec 16, 2006 at 1:37 pm
If the bleeding hearts think capital punishment is bad, it’s only because they’ve never seen lower-case punishment.
20 Bill's Bites // Dec 16, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Florida Lethal Injections, Murders Put on Hold…
(2006-12-16) After a botched execution that took 34 minutes to end a convicted murderers life, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has suspended all death sentences until a commission can review lethal-injection procedures to ensure they dont inflict cruel …
21 Analchord // Dec 16, 2006 at 2:11 pm
[deleted]
22 Fred Sinclair // Dec 16, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Somewhat free translation of #16:
My pipe
When love grows cold
Thy presence warms me
When friends are fled
Thy presence charms me
When money has fled,
though purse be bare
i smoke and cast away all care.
Heirborn Ranger
23 Analchord // Dec 16, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Point of order: Fred Sinclair’s poem is copied directly word for word from the author’s note in the preamble to “Mein Kampf”. I was trying to spare you all, but some folks just dont take the hint. A good man’s got to know his own limitations.
24 RedPepper // Dec 16, 2006 at 4:28 pm
Angel Nieves Diaz was executed for the murder of Joseph Nagy, the bar manager of the Velvet Swing Lounge, a Miami topless bar. Nagy was shot in the chest during an armed robbery ; Diaz was one of the three robbers.
According to one of the AP stories about the execution, “Missing a vein when administering the injections would cause ‘both psychological and physical discomfort — probably pretty severe’ … (the) inmate would remain conscious for a longer period of time and would likely be aware of increased difficulty breathing and pain caused by angina, the interruption of blood flow to the heart … ”
Another AP story quotes Mark Elliot, a spokesman for Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty :
“They had to execute him twice,” Mark Elliot said. “If Floridians could witness the pain and the agony of the executed man’s family, they would end the death penalty.”
I was not able to find any stories that mentioned the pain and suffering endured by the family of Joseph Nagy for the last 27 years. Nor the “discomfort” Mr. Nagy experienced as a consequence of being fatally shot in the chest. Nor did I find any mention of just how long it took Nagy to die.
Wonder why.
25 upnorthlurkin // Dec 16, 2006 at 4:51 pm
I agree with Camo….we’ve been assured countless times that the starvation/dehydration method used on Terri Schaivo was like total euphoria man….Of course the humane thing to do in these death sentences is to afford the convicted the same luxury!
26 Analchord // Dec 16, 2006 at 6:12 pm
upnorthlurkin: but what if your condemned man was Paris Hilton? If you tried starvation/dehydration, she would just get hotter, man.
I’m for electrocution, then hangin, then 50 lashes with a cat-o-nine tails.
Are there any stand up comedians on this blog?
27 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 16, 2006 at 6:38 pm
If Diaz had been executed twice, the second execution would have been of his corpse.
Also, I suspect they use a well-qualified phlebotomist for these executions. This leads me to wonder as to the condition of Diaz’s veins-whether they were collapsed due to heavy drug use. If this is the case, whose fault is it?
28 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Patterico is not impressed with the preliminary opinion in finding constitutional flaws in California’s execution protocol.
29 The Great Santini // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:08 pm
A black-robed judicial sophist (US District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel, in the Diaz case) has ruminated over the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment and has divined from it the constitutional right to a pain-free execution for convicted and condemned murderers. If this is what passes for constitutional exegesis, then the document has lost any meaning it had. Better to substitute liberal judicial preference for rational analysis of the document’s text-which is exactly what Fogel’s decision does.
We look on with bovine indifference at such a travesty, we acquiesce in the tyranny displayed, no calls for Fogel’s impeachment ring out, the Schwarzeneggar administration vows to “work with” Fogel to “implement” his asinine decision…and another restriction on capital punishment assures that Diaz will be allowed to live on for many more years, long after his victim perished at his hands-cruelly, unusually, and in great pain and suffering.
Post-modern “justice” is an oxymoron.
30 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:23 pm
RE: #27~~
I admit the post was made without any real knowledge of the case and was made on the assumption that a certified phlebotomist was used.
Looking more closely, I can only find reference (via AP) to an “execution team” and “officials” who administered the injection. FOX News, just a few minutes ago, inferred that it was a prison guard who administered the injection. Nevertheless, I still don’t think they would would someone without any phlebotomy qualifications.
I did learn, though, that this Diaz had hepatitis, which could lend credence to my precious question regarding his veins.
31 JamesonLewis3rd // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:27 pm
precious = previous
32 mig // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:27 pm
Twice Died, Tie dyed.
33 R.A.M. // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:28 pm
Some random questions and thoughts.
I wonder how long Diaz’s victim suffered before he died?
Any word on what Kofi Annon has to say on this barbaric practice?
Angel, what an unusual name for a Mexican. That’s about as original as an African-American named Ebony.
If they had known there would be so much fuss over 30 minutes of suffering, they could have fed him at a New Jersey Taco Bell, then stayed the execution for 60 days.
That should have allowed enough time for some real suffering!
34 R.A.M. // Dec 16, 2006 at 7:38 pm
RE: #26,
Funny post!
Nicole Ritchie has one new benefit. She can now buy off the children’s rack at K-Mart!
Your stand on capitol punishment sounds a lot like what the last “biker” wanted to do to Pee Wee Herman, when he knocked over their bikes,—-well,— before he wowed them with his “toe dance”.
In a way I’m torn on this capitol punishment thing, as I’m now beginning to believe, some on death row are probably better people than MOST of our elected leaders in Washington, DC!
35 Analchord // Dec 16, 2006 at 10:35 pm
Ram: I heard that. W thinks he can just wait it out over there. I hope he’s right.
The NBC telecast of the Falcons game tonite is spotty. The HD camera coverage keeps going out, and there’s a lot of blank air. sound is terrible too. I think the Falcons are going to win this one. Falcons to the superbowl!!!!
36 RedPepper // Dec 16, 2006 at 11:06 pm
camojack #15: Camo, somehow I suspect that starvation would not be accepted as an appropriate method of execution, no matter how merciful it seemed in the Schiavo case. But Mark Klaas (Polly’s father) made a suggestion on the Fox channel that sounds like a painless, quick approach to me ; bring back the guillotine ! Hey, if it was good enough for royalty …
37 conserve-a-tips // Dec 16, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Boy, I come in from an amazing night in Guthrie, Oklahoma at the Territorial Christmas Victorian Walk that the town has every year - streets closed off to cars, people dressed in Victorian attire, boys running around in knickers selling hot peanuts, living windows in all of the businesses depicting a time at the turn of the century, horses pulling buggies of people and men dressed as old timey photographers with bellows style cameras on the sidewalks taking pictures, carolers in long capes, muffs and hats or waistcoats and tophats, treating us to Christmas songs, plenty of free Wassail and hot chocolate and cookies, fidlers and guitar pickers in the street and the Okie Dokie Bango Band performing Christmas music - all before a backdrop of beautiful, ornate, brick, turn-of-the century buildings decorated with white lights that take the breath away….and I get on here and y’all are really gruesome tonight!!! Merry Christmas?
38 conserve-a-tips // Dec 16, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Oh, by the way, Guthrie is just one antique store after another on street after street, and I am in hog heaven when I go. I couldn’t pass something up tonight and I had to share a couple of items from it that I thought you would find interesting:
From the March 13, 1970 Life Magazine with the title: The Great Hemline Hassel - these are a couple of letters to the editor:
Sirs: M. Pompidou (”The Man from France, ” Feb. 20) asks the rhetorical question, “Now it [the situation in the Middle East] is war. What could be worse?” All the Western powers adopting the policy of France - arming the Arab states sworn to the destruction of Israel (as Libya is) - that could be worse. Clara Wishner
I was just sure that I heard the Dems say that problems in the Middle East didn’t arise until Bush got into office. And I could swear that they are saying that it’s Israel’s fault that the Arabs are killing each other. Hmmm.
Sirs: The macabre brilliance with which Ardrey delineates the alternatives of organized compulsory birth control vs. “death by stress” cannot, I hope, leave any of your readers unaffected. Those who scoff and go ahead to raise a third or fourth or fifth child should be numbered, as Ardrey so clearly implies, among the most heinous criminals in the world - they will be the murderers of our species.
Mark Halliday Ludlow, VT.
I have a saying: Nothing is new under the sun (Ecclesiastes)
39 Fred Sinclair // Dec 17, 2006 at 2:28 am
#26. “upnorthlurkin: but what if your condemned man was Paris Hilton?”
If your condemmed man was Paris Hilton, your condemmed man would not be a condemmed man. (or any other kind of man, for that matter.)
One thing you have to admire about Paris Hilton and that is the extreme lengths to which she has gone to prove that you don’t have to be poor, to be white trash.
Heirborn Ranger
40 Fred Sinclair // Dec 17, 2006 at 2:46 am
Once in a while a truly great one comes my way. Normally with only one hand, I don’t play any sort of computer game, but then I’ve always been fascinated by helicopters. This one’s a doozy!
My top score to date - 1137.
http://www.hurtwood.demon.co.uk/Fun/copter.swf
Heirborn Ranger
41 Godfrey // Dec 17, 2006 at 3:54 am
Yeesh. 638… maybe I should stick with airplanes.
42 MargeinMI // Dec 17, 2006 at 4:34 am
1137?!? How long did that take? It’s harder than it looks. :o) Thanks Fred!
The Earlybird
43 MargeinMI // Dec 17, 2006 at 6:01 am
1254! HA!
(I know, get a life, Marge.)
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