July 27, 2007
Florida
A hood doesn't mask our failures
By SUE CARLTON, St. Petersburg Times
Given the latest in our off-again on-again death penalty, here's a question
from left field:
Why does the person carrying out the absolute punishment get his identity
hidden by the state?
Historically, executioners have worn hoods. (Ku Klux Klansmen, too, but
that's another story.) Maybe this was symbolic, to show that society, and
not just the hangman who had to do the dirty work, decided the fate of the
doomed.
Our own Department of Corrections says keeping the executioner'
secret - state law, by the way - protects the person from retribution by
extremists or an inmate's friends or family. (Surely there's little fear
about anti-death penalty types, who tend to be against that whole
eye-for-an-eye thing.) The doctor and doctor's assistant present at
executions have worn hoods as well.
Critics have a different view. They say this secrecy is born of shame, or
ambivalence about killing even killers, or because even for true believers,
there are grim realities to actually taking a life.
For now, let's skip the real question of right or wrong and talk process. We
have a history of horror shows: flames erupting from men's heads during
electrocutions, a face dripping blood. "They butchered me back there,"
killer Bennie Demps said just before he was executed in 2000, saying they
cut and injected his groin and leg in search of a vein. We have struggled to
consistently impose death with even the dignity we give to euthanizing stray
dogs.
When convicted murderer Angel Diaz took twice as long as normal to die from
lethal injection, with drugs injected into his flesh instead of his
bloodstream, Gov. Jeb Bush rightly halted executions. (Please, hold the
chorus of no-punishment-
that.)
An appointed commission looked at what went wrong, the DOC agreed to
recommendations, and the death penalty was back on.
Which brings us to convicted killer Ian Deco Lightbourne. Like others on
death row, he had appealed on cruel-and-unusual grounds. Judge Carven Angel
(what a name in a death case) questioned, among other things, the experience
and competence of the hooded executioner who administers the lethal dose.
(Job requirements: picked by warden. Must be 18. Must get training. Pay:
$150.)
The judge talked about whether any 18-year-old under the gun of a governor's
warrant and a world watching would "have enough experience and competence to
stop an execution when it needs to be stopped." Good question. Add mine: Why
hide his identity? Shouldn't we know his qualifications, his history?
"When you become a public employee, you should not be able to hide behind a
black hood," said a Florida lawyer who in the 1990s unsuccessfully sued to
unmask executioners.
Truth is, even if we exposed the identity of the man or woman at the switch,
syringe or whatever our current instrument of choice, I doubt we would lack
for applicants.
A DOC spokeswoman confirmed my suspicions. "Any time the death penalty comes
up in court or an execution is looming," said Gretl Plessinger, "we get a
dozen e-mails to this office saying, 'I'm interested in being an
executioner.
These days, I'm guessing a hood wouldn't make a whole lot of difference.
---
Source : St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.
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1 comment:
Prior to moving the curtain I heard one of the persons, one the executioners, the persons handling the chemicals just say it seemed a little stiff or it was a little hard to push. There was a response from behind that person, which is where the medical team usually stands to support the executioners, just made the statement that it's just make a nice, slow, easy push which is a normal comment that I've heard them make before.
I can tell you that facing the window there are the executioners per se and right behind them are medical personnel. I cannot identify them. They're still dressed in the full covering as are the executioners.
Who are the people coaching the executioners?
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