Sunday 29 April 2007

Letters, faxes, and e-mail



Letters, faxes, and e-mail

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Alabama has been very lucky so far. Its lethal-injection executions have not been as badly botched as the one in Florida last December, which hit the headlines around the world.

But it has come close, and so one would think it would be wise for Alabama to follow the examples of Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee, which have all put executions on hold while reviewing their lethal-injection protocol.

The recent ruling of U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson denying Aaron Jones a stay of execution was based solely on Jones' longevity on Death Row, not because Alabama does not have a problem with its protocol. It does, and Alabama courts have acknowledged this by scheduling to hear this issue in June. Of course, for Jones and others, this will come too late.

It is likely Alabama's luck will run out in its rush to set as many execution dates as possible before the courts halt executions and mandate a thorough review and changes this fall. Alabama often prides itself on its independence, but it will have to rethink how it bucks the tide on the death penalty. God forbid that we have the horror of a botched execution. We will not be able to claim ignorance because we knew we had no protocol and were willing to run the risk of torturing people to death.

One thing we all can be sure: It will hit the headlines nationally and internationally. As it is, the rest of the free world cannot understand our bloodlust, our love affair with the death penalty.

Esther Brown

Executive director

Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty

Lanett

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Who is this "medical witness" trying to kid? Of course IV tubing has non medical use. Of course people insert needles into their veins for non medical reasons. Of course people use gurneys and IV bags, and syringes for non medical reasons. Of course the poisons involved are used for non medical reasons (these drugs all have some legitimate medical/surgical use.). Scheisse!

The Herr doctor is living in his own Volkenkuckkucksheim when he says that the whole nasty procedure "has nothing to do with a medical procedure". The only thing I can think of is that the procedure is related to mainlining drugs--an illegal procedure by the way. Either this doctor, hiding behind a mask for cowardess,is just plain stupid, or he is lying through his teeth,or contemptuous of the Commission, and is a disgrace to the medical profession on two accounts beside his active participation in the devil's work-- his lying and his hiding. A real man admits responsibility for what he does.

Der ALte Verkerer