Lawyers fight to halt Ohio execution condemned as human experimentation

[clear eye]

Source: The Guardian

• Lethal injection involves anaesthetic used on pets
• Change of method follows previous failures in state
Ed Pilkington in New York guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 December 2009 20.02 GMT

Lawyers acting for a prisoner on death row in Ohio were scrambling to delay his scheduled execution tomorrow morning using a new method of lethal injection that is widely used to put down pets. The procedure has never been tried out on humans and is tantamount, critics say, to human experimentation. snip

Ohio opted for the new protocol in the wake of a gruesome incident in September in which an execution was botched – the third such incident in three years in the state. Romell Broom, a rapist and murderer, spent two hours on the gurney as officials tried to find a vein that would hold an intravenous drip through which the poisons that would kill him could be introduced.

During that time, Broom tried to help his executioners find a vein, turning over on his side and rubbing his arm, and he was later seen to be in distress and weeping. A doctor was called in to help apply the drip – in contravention of ethical guidelines that say doctors should not be involved in executive killings.

After 18 attempts the execution was called off and Broom was returned to death row, where he remains.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/07/lawyers-fight-ohio-execution

[hlthe2b]

1. Actually, human medicine has considerable experence with

Sodium pentothal anesthesia overdose over the past many decades--albeit not intentional. While it will be a delayed and unpredictable time of death, it will probably be hard to paint this means as "cruel and unusual," unlike using paralyzing drugs, which could allow for semi-conscious asphyxia and/or painful potassium CL in the mix... I remain anti-death penalty, but as long as they have a good vein, this would seem to be as pain-free as options allow. Those administering it won't like it because it will take time and probably repeated "checks" before death can be determined.

[Deep13]

2. FYI: when OH was using the three-drug method...

...the defense bar including the Ohio Public Defender's Office argued it was unconstitutionally cruel. They argued that the single-drug formula that the state now is going use was a much more humane alternative. Now for some reason, THAT is unconstitutionally cruel. The new single drug would knock him out instantly and kill him while he's unconscious.

I was at a prosecutor's convention in Columbus, OH last week. The D.A. who tried Kenneth Biros, referenced in the full version of this story, described the case. He captured his victim, a 20-something young woman, and brought her to a secluded cabin where he tortured her to death. She sustained 91 knife wounds while she was still alive. After he finally killed her, he cut off one leg, one breast and her head. Police found the severed parts at one location filled with mud as though Biros was trying to build something. The eviscerated torso was found at another location. Biros had excised the vagina and anus from the corpse. Her intestines were found at a third location.

I know a lot of people here are against the death penalty in principle or because of various practical considerations. Still, I hope you keep all this in mind before accusing us for being barbaric. As far as I'm concerned, Biros forfeited the right to call anyone else cruel or to appeal to mercy when he did what he did.

[twitomy]

3. I'm from that area..

That cabin was his Mother house. Drive passed it remains quite a bit when visiting relatives. Abandoned, the house becasme a crack house, then was torched. Locals says the area is now haunted.

Biros deserves what he has coming.

Link: http://www.strangeusa.com/ViewLocation.aspx?locationid=56793

I know the cop mentioned in the story; used to get coffee at the convenience store I worked at years ago...