Killer takes TWO HOURS to die after legal injection

No matter how horrendous the crimes for which John Woods was convicted

(a double murder I think) and executed for in Arizona, few people(irrespective of their stance on capital punishment) can be comfortable with the fact that due to the botched nature of his mode of execution(lethal injection) he expired not within minutes but after an agonizingly protracted TWO HOURS.

Some will argue that who cares, he got what he put through his two victims though?-let him suffer, it's no more than the(insert insult here) deserved in the first place!

The reason his execution( or torture to death if you like) was so protracted was because due to an EU wide ban on chemicals being assoicated with lethal injection in the US being sent to death penalty jurisdictions in America(which include Pennsylvania where I spend Thanksgiving with my cousins every November). The EU argues that chemicals like sodium thiopenthal should be used to ease sufferings and prolonge life NOT end it( I agree entirely) which has led to capital punishment states such as Arizona, Missouri(and possibly Pennsylvania) using weird and untested cocktails of drugs upon their executees- shades of Mengele or Unit 731!

Personally given that there are laws(including federal ones) in most US states forbidding wilful cruelty to animals(whether wild or domesticated) but NOT death row inmates, perhaps anti-capital punishment groups should campaign for abolition on the grounds of "equal rights with animals!"( or maybe death row inmates are considered to be beneath even cattle, pigs, sheep or household pets!)

Anybody else think as I do?

Terry

Wait, so the message of this thread is to forbid cruelty against Death Row inmates?

Why?

I hope it hurt. I hope it were the 2 most agonising hours he ever had.
He's a murderer, and justice has been served. A person who takes someone else's life(without valid reason and because of own free will) loses all human rights in my eyes.

But that's just my opinion.

Because it's illegal. Until a judge passes a law saying we should torture convicts.

Ouch.

Well, I think it was justified. This guy took the words right out of my mouth.

Good for him he got extra two hours to live.

I think we should hang these people in public

Who cares? He died in the end, and he suffered too.

Damn. He clearly lifts. Its like me spraying a huge spider and the spider lifting its legs up like I'm giving it a nice relaxing shower.

I hope it was very painful.

Definitely not many sympathetic people on here. What the man did was most definitely not and never will be right, but what happened to him here is pretty much torture, something we shouldn't support.

So, you're okay with sinking to the killer's level and causing unnecessary pain to a fellow human being?(And essentially torturing him) That will never be" justice" in any way, shape, or form, just pure barbaric vengeance.

I agree. Would have been horrific to be a witness to that. After the 30 minute mark you'd think someone would just end it with a bullet.

As ugly and undignified as it may seem this is why I think death row prisoners should just be shot in the head. Cheaper on the taxpayers and no prolonged suffering if something goes wrong. Worst case scenario a second bullet has to accomplish what the first one didn't.

You kind of wonder how the drugs they use to kill these guys that are so crappy in terms of effectiveness get there in the first place.

R.I.P to the people/person that murderer killed

@wolverine08: Word.

*eh*

I wanna care, but I just can't.

i'd save my sympathy to that murderer's victims and his/her relatives.

Yep. But I know where this conversation is going. Maybe when we apply that "unnecessary" torture people will think twice before killing someone for 20 dollar.

Eh. It's not really stooping to their level. They killed an innocent.

We're not.

So, you are okay with torture? Don't you think that's pretty hypocritical when you are condemning someone for doing something you perceive to be bad to do something that is just as bad?The problem here is that this is more or less the line of thinking always used to defend the use of the death penalty, and the statistics show that the death penalty's effect on overall crime ranges from literally no noticeable to change to in the best cases, a rudimentary drop in crime. I am notaiming this at you, but I've gotten to the point where I think the people whom think that using things like the death penalty and torture to make criminals "think twice" are either A) just severely naive, or B) plain don't know the facts/statistics around this stuff. You're not scaring criminals out of what they do, if we could, the effect would be easily noticeable in the thousands of years human beings have been using things like the death penalty and torture to try deal with crime. Sorry, this type of thing is always will be gratuitous.

Thank you, some common sense in a quite frankly disturbing thread thus far.

That's faulty logic. Statistical crime figures have demonstrated that the rate of crime in many areas does not decrease regardless of whether the death penalty is enforced. Both in American states and outside of it. Not to mention all the horrible and immoral double standards the death penalty entails. I'm very ashamed at the comments made in this thread. Regardless of whether the victim is innocent or not, inflicting unnecessarily torture in a prison environment whilst the prisoners are waiting to be executed is a backwards and barbaric tradition. Most of the world has grown out of it yet America still insists on using an outdated form of punishment.

The guy raped and killed a pregnant women...kinda hard to feel any sort of sympothy for the scum bad, that said they shoulda put a bullet in his head or something after the 5th minute, I say that because it's cruel for those who had to watch and/or monitor the ordeal

That's just horrific. The death penalty is bad enough....but two hours...owwchie

LOL

On another topic, the death penalty should be taken off. I even heard somewhere that around 50% of the people on death row are innocent? That's crazy.

From what I've researched, there's a lot of ambiguity and inaccuracies regarding death row court cases. The evidence for conviction is often flimsy at best. Also, after a prisoner has been sentenced to Death Row, later reviews of their conviction can be reviewed and they're found to be innocent of the crimes they're accused of. It's a very depressing sign of corporal punishment when the people who are supposed to be sentenced to die aren't guilty of the crimes in their first place.

I still think the death penalty is just a pretty white lie they use to cover up the fact that taking a life no matter what is still murder. I mean if we're going into the technicalities of it, it's premeditated murder at that. Though me saying this is hypocritical since I, myself have a sort of "eye for an eye" type of mentality though I do believe that there are worse things than death though that's getting into the semantics of things

I know you aren't aiming this at me mate. But if you ever lost someone you knew because of something stupid like this, I'm pretty sure you would think the same way. Maybe I'm just bitter when it comes to things like this. I don't care, honestly.

Yeah that's what I heard too. I definitely don't agree with the death penalty. There has to be 100% proof with copious amounts of evidence to simply sentence a man to his death.

Damn, LOL at all the 'he got what he deserved' people....self righteousness out the arse smh and since when do two wrongs make a right?

I've said it before, and i'll say it again, a bullet to the head is simple and effective. The inmate feels no pain and you will never hear stories like this.

@yourneighborhoodcomicgeek: Not to mention the cost of it being more than life in prison due to the extra trials, lawyers, etc. and the disproportionate amount of ethnics minorities sentenced to death.

@scorpion2501:

But if you ever lost someone you knew because of something stupid like this, I'm pretty sure you would think the same way.

Depends. I lost my paternal grandmother due to her and a group of friends getting robbed and shot while they were coming back from church when I was a toddler. My mother is estranged from my own mother so I more or less never got to have a grandmother like most people I know do now because of those men. They were never caught, but if they were, I don't really think killing them would solve anything. She probably wouldn't have wanted it either. I know this type of thing is emotional stuff, I just don't think two wrongs make a right, and I don't think statistics back these kind of things either.

@buttersdaman000: But is the death penalty even necessary anymore? Most countries outside America and The Middle East have abandoned the death penalty altogether and still have lower crime rates than America. So it's not as if the death penalty, however clean or painless it would be, is a good form of punishment for criminals. Especially with our current moral climate and standards.

And people sentence men to death for far less. Convenient evidence and limited eyewitness accounts can be enough for the death penalty.

I know I'm wrong. I know I'm very wrong about this topic. But like I said, I don't care. 2 wrongs just make 2 wrongs, you're right. But what one might see as wrong can be seen as right in the eyes of someone else. The victim's family. It serves as closure for them(Most of the times).

The torture thing might be a bit extreme. I don't know the statistics or what could change them. I'm just trying to come up with something.

But yeah, you're right, I'm wrong.

@scorpion2501:

But yeah, you're right, I'm wrong.

Naw, don't look at it like black and white that. Death penalty supporters probably could(And do) manage to create solid points as to why they believe their position is right. I can easily tell your motivation behind your position is admirable.(A want for justice) It's what all want at the end of the day, even if we have differing ideas as to how to achieve that justice. No one is really right or wrong when it comes to emotional issues like these.

You're right. And I'm sorry for the loss of your grandmother.

Thank you mate. I know you've suffered loses throughout your life as well and I commend you on your courage through it all. You're probably a tougher nut than me deep down.

Good. Hopefully he had a realization that he's a terrible person that did a terrible thing. Hopefully he it was the most painful realization he's ever gone through. Hopefully he was truly sorry for what he did by the end of it all. If we did it my way everyone that had copious amounts of evidence against them for a sever crime would be burned. Alive.

And to the people that think I'm self righteous out of the arse, and the people that disagree with me, good for you. I'm glad you can come up with your own independent stance on this. Just leave me the f*ck alone with my stance.

There are so many misconceptions about law on this thread. In any case, I don't believe in the death penalty, per sé, but even those who do usually agree that it should be done humanely. I say we just shoot them in the temple. Quick, painless, and little chance for error.

Meh

Hmm- we abolished public executions as far back as 1868 and juvenile executions in 1948. Granted, Death Row inmates are hardly likely to win popularity contests, but I seem to remember a US Supreme Court Justice(whether it was Oliver Wendell Holmes or Felix Frankfurter is unclear) observing that some of the most important issues of justice have involved the type of people you most definitely would not care to meet in a dark alleyway after midnight or invite home for Sunday brunch! I definitely recall the aforementioned Frankfurter noting that there are "some things you cannot do to even a dog!"( and he was one of the Court's conservatives!) Or are Death Row inmates lower than even dogs?!

I might also note that according to the late Thurgood Marshall, the idea that the death penalty is cheaper than life imprisonment is just flat out WRONG. Death is WAY more expensive that life without parole!

Terry

Because civilization?

EDIT: Also, this is super old.

He deserved far worse. You people crying about the inhumane treatment of murderers might change your minds if it were your wife/husband/kids that were on the receiving end.

@paracelsus: These chemicals are really expensive, why can't they find a extreme height and push them off or shoot them, bullets are so cheap in America.

I'm undecided on whether I agree or disagree with Capital Punishment. But this is undoubtedly Cruel and Unusual Punishment (8th Amendment). You cannot deny that it isn't.

Politicians these days always talking about how North Korea and Iraq (with Saddam) is/were the worst country on earth. This is something I'd imagine happen over there and it happened HERE. Bunch of hypocrites in this damn country. My hope in this country is torn away little by little when things like this happen. Next thing you you'll have regular average people asking to have it broadcast on tv, well because he deserved it and I Wanna Watch!!!

I agree with Paracelsus. This is the on the same level as Josef Mengele's, Unit 731's, and even the Tuskegee experiments. This is disgusting and it should not be applauded. Absolutely Shameful. But you know M'erica

Honestly if it wasn't for the fact you like Wolverine and I like Spider-Man, we would be as brothers....

@laflux: I revel in the hatred our different fanships bring.

@paracelsus: The point about dogs is worthless because many people actually care more about dogs than they do about human beings.

Also, to the people that say he deserved or deserved far worse. Maybe they should round you all up and make you push the button, inject the inmate, be part of a firing squad. I wonder how many of you would actually do it. B-B-B-But since he deserves it so bad, then I won't even h-hesitate or f-f-feel bad about it afterwards. You do know it's other people's jobs to do it. These people may or may not even agree with it. How do you know they don't feel responsible for the death of the inmate after and if it bothers them. Would be comfortable with being the executioner and having to look at the person's eyes right before he dies? Just something to think about.

Mixed minds on this...

On one hand, I really hoped he was in serious pain every second until death.

On the other hand, that needs to be stopped now. No matter how much these people deserve that pain, we should be the ones to rise above them. Heck, just shoot them in the head, do it twice to make sure he is dead. I mean geez, like someone said, NO ONE was allowed to mercy kill him to save hime from his pain?

So, yeah we need to find another way to kill people. Of course, I don't really care THAT much since this guy deserved it, but still.