In January, as the date of Christopher Sepulvado’s execution approached, the Louisiana Department of Corrections did not have the drugs it needed to carry out his death sentence.
So the state turned to a supplier that uses hydromorphone to relieve patients’ suffering, not to kill them: Lake Charles Memorial Hospital.
“We assumed the drug was for one of their patients, so we sent it. We did not realize what the focus was,” said Ulysses Gene Thibodeaux, a board member for the private, nonprofit hospital and chief judge of the Third Circuit Court of Appeal.
“Had we known of the real use,” he said, “we never would have done it.”
The Department of Corrections bought 20 vials of the drug on Jan. 28, a week before Sepulvado’s scheduled execution, according to a document provided by the state in a lawsuit challenging its lethal-injection practice.
Until now, the source of those vials has not been publicly known.
Thibodeaux said it’s routine for hospital pharmacies to supply drugs to other pharmacies, including those run by the state, for their patients.
“We never inquire into the purpose for it. We assume it’s for legitimate and noble purposes,” Thibodeaux said. “We have assurances from our CEO, who is a very forthright guy, that this will not happen again.”
State officials with the Louisiana Department of Corrections did not respond to repeated requests to comment for this story. Sepulvado’s lawyers declined to comment.
Sepulvado wasn’t executed on Feb. 5. After a botched execution in Oklahoma, the state agreed to delay his execution for six months as it considered alternative methods. A status conference on his lawsuit has been set for November.
Drugs expired as execution was delayed
Sepulvado was convicted in 1993 for killing his six-year-old stepson by beating him with a screwdriver and submerging his body in scalding water. Over the years, his attorneys have delayed his execution by arguing that the state’s death penalty practices could violate his constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
This is part of a continuing investigation into Louisiana’s execution methods.Highlights of our coverage:Louisiana’s death-penalty protocol uses same drugs as lengthy Arizona executionState failed to turn over key public records about execution drugsState has explored illegally obtaining drug for upcoming executionWith lethal-injection drugs hard to get, states turning to custom pharmaciesState’s supply of drug for executing prisoners has expired, says attorney for death-row inmate
After several delays, his execution was rescheduled for early February. Three weeks before the state was supposed to carry out his death sentence, it didn’t have the drug it needed. Its supply of pentobarbital had expired in September.
Throughout the fall, the state had scrambled to procure lethal injection drugs. Other states were having trouble finding them, too, after drug manufacturers refused to sell to prisons and current supplies started to expire.
At one point, the Louisiana Department of Corrections considered ordering pentobarbital from an Oklahoma compounding pharmacy — which would have been illegal because the pharmacy wasn’t licensed in Louisiana.
Then, nine days before Sepulvado’s Feb. 5 execution date, the state announced it had approved another method to put him to death. The new combination was hydromorphone and midazolam, the same drugs that had just been used in the prolonged execution of Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire.
Drug obtained days before scheduled execution
There was one problem with the alternate method: The state Department of Corrections apparently didn’t have hydromorphone, either. However, it did have midazolam, a sedative commonly in stock at pharmacies.
A few days later — five days before the execution — Department of Corrections spokeswoman Pam Laborde said the agency had the two drugs it needed to kill Sepulvado.
The department wouldn’t say where they came from. A federal judge ordered it to reveal the supplier to Sepulvado’s lawyers, but the department requested the information remain under seal.
Now, two people — Thibodeaux and a source that refused to be identified — say the state got its hydromorphone from Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. The Lens also reviewed a document that confirmed the source of the drug.
According to documents shared with Sepulvado’s lawyers, the drugs were sent to Elayn Hunt Correctional Center’s Medical Unit, which the state describes the site as a “medical facility for seriously or chronically ill offenders.”
Properly permitted hospital pharmacies like the one at Lake Charles Memorial can legally supply medications to other pharmacies, as long as the drugs are for a hospital patient, according to Malcolm Broussard, executive director of the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy.
The supplying pharmacy wouldn’t need a prescription for that particular patient. Those rules apply even to highly regulated drugs such as hydromorphone, he said.
Broussard said he didn’t know enough about this particular transaction to comment on it.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said he wasn’t aware of a hospital supplying a lethal-injection drug. But it isn’t surprising, he said, because hydromorphone is “more commonly used and would be available … unlike some lethal injection drugs.”
Nationwide, drug suppliers concealed as drugs become hard to find
Around the country, states have moved to conceal the sources of their execution drugs.
Deborah Denno, a professor at the Fordham University School of Law and an expert on the death penalty, said states are becoming more secretive because the death penalty is becoming more controversial.
“The stakes are higher because the drug supplier is … more vulnerable,” Denno said, pointing to several lengthy executions this year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona.
“They’re being secretive because they know they couldn’t carry out executions otherwise,” she said. “Look at the botches in 2014 alone.”
Louisiana’s tactics have changed in the past year and a half.
In 2013, the state identified the source of its execution drug, but refused to say when it expired.
State officials told The Lens repeatedly that there were no records showing the expiration date of its pentobarbital. Documents later made public showed that wasn’t true; the state apparently violated open records law by withholding the information.
Since then, the state has disclosed expiration dates but has argued that the source of the drugs is confidential. A state law says that the identities of people involved in executions cannot be publicized; the state Department of Corrections has argued that the law extends to drug manufacturers and suppliers.
That’s why the state redacted the supplier of the hydromorphone in documents shared with Sepulvado’s lawyers.
Oddly, however, the state didn’t redact the name of the pharmacist at Lake Charles Memorial who handled the order.
Should the hospital have known what the drug was for?
Denno said some states have resorted to unorthodox tactics as lethal injection drugs become harder to obtain. But she’s never heard of a state getting its drug from a hospital.
“There’s so much secrecy involved in all of this that it’s really hard to tell where the drugs are coming from,” Denno said.
She said Lake Charles Memorial Hospital should have known the state prison was looking for hydromorphone to carry out an execution.
If suppliers like the hospital don’t want to be involved in executions, she said, they could require a contract when selling drugs that could be used in the death penalty. That contract would specifically prohibit the drug’s use in executions.
That’s what drug manufacturers such as Hospira and Lundbeck have done, which sparked the shortage of lethal-injection drugs.
“It’s a slippery slope for a hospital to be the supplier,” Denno said. “They are enabling execution, no matter which way you slice it.”
the execution was legal,,, By the hospitals logic, they should never sell scalpels, drugs or any Abortion products to planned parenthood or other abortuaries
Nice try, NICETRY, but abortions aren’t executions. I know enough not to try to convince you otherwise.
Clinics that provide abortions probably don’t get their supplies from a hospital; they get them from the normal supply chain, what with them being clinics and all.
Dumb, really dumb!
Very good point made: hospitals should have contracts signed up that state their drugs aren’t to be used for executions.
Name one judicial execution ever conducted in the United States using a scalpel. As for the rest of your comment, your side of the fence is revealed on that issue and that’s fine; abortions are not court-ordered executions of criminals and are a separate matter. And you’ll probably find there are hospitals that refuse to supply this equipment for abortions. Otherwise there wouldn’t be such things as “abortion clinics” right?
We are supposed to be a civilized society, that’s why if we’re gonna execute, we should strive to be as humane as possible. We’re ending a person’s life, don’t you think that’s punishment enough. Remember 99% of those executed have loved ones who the condemned have made victims as well; torturing their father, mother, son, etc to death is unfair on the families. Plus, remember there are people who are responsible for actually doing the executions and you’re suggesting they should be sadists who are only different from the people being put to death by the fact they wear a badge and have a paper saying it’s OK for them to do this. If you gotta kill people, then do so in a way that is as quick and painless as possible and get it over with. From what I’m hearing the best way might be to sit them in a chair, sedate them or knock them out with anesthetic and then have a professional military sniper take care of the rest. I’m not arguing in favor or against death penalty, but something has to be better than reducing our society to medieval times. I’m sure there are some who’d love to see burning at the stake brought back.
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic, or actually believe that word vomit you posted, because you’re advocating lying, just so they can get the killer meds. There are a lot of people who don’t understand why Hospitals are reluctant, or refuse to give these medications for their intended purpose….Hospitals, Doctors and Nurses are all in the business of saving lives, not killing, I believe part of a Doctor’s Oath is “to do no harm”..and I’m sure Hospitals have the same philosophy. Yet another thing that some people don’t seem to understand, the cruel and unusual punishment aspect of it all. And that’s what’s amusing. People with fight tooth and nail to and scream about their constitutional rights when the subject of guns comes up… but cruel and unusual punishment is in the same document and some could care less. One cannot pick and choose or cherry pick, the Constitution….You either follow and obey all of it, or dismiss certain passages…And these are usually the politicians….the biggest hypocrites around. If they want killer drugs, then build their own lab, hire chemist of low morals and make your drug and quit getting it from the public hospitals and pharmacies.
So they SAY they knew nothing about the intended use.
I’m fine with the Death Penalty, on one condition. If, after the execution, it is determined that a mistake was made and the person did not commit the crime, then the Judge, Jury, and Prosecution team must submit to their own executions. Their crime is the same that was charged to the deceased; murder. As long as all are agreed to that condition, then go ahead. Better not get it wrong and no appeals on it either.
Given the original supply of expired Pentobarb was destined for non-therapeutic use, what difference does it make that it exceeded the use-by date (provided it had been stored under optimal conditions)? The DoD uses expired medications all the time, often extending their use-by dates by short periods, after being properly tested for contamination, safety, and therapeutic potency. Moreover, the DoD used to use expired Pentobarb stock for veterinary purposes in sedating animals (pigs and sheep) for combat trauma surgical training; and ultimately in ending the animal’s life when the surgical exercise was finished.
In Illinois it was discovered that about half of the people on death row were innocent of a capital crime, meaning that the state was in the business of killing innocent people. I am inclined to skepticism that Louisiana’s track record would be any better.
This is why, even when someone commits a crime so heinous as to forfeit their right to draw a breath, the state should stay out of the execution business. Time will take care of a sociopath like this guy without a system that kills innocent people by accident or agenda.
This man deserved death, I’m sorry, I can’t feel anything but disgust for this man and his wife. They tortured this 6 year old boy. This man did not deserve to take one more breath. Life in prison would allow him to read a book, exercise, watch TV, get a pen pail and countless other activities, none of which he deserves. His victim, a 6 year old, was tortured for two days, there is no question this man did it, I just wish he could of experience even a part of what this poor boy did.
Well if they don’t have the meds to kill him then just kill him the way he did his step son!!! Problem solved……………
I’m not a fan of executions, but the one prevailing issue with your proposal is the mental health of the executioner. Even members of firing squads need to be pacified by belief that they were the lucky ones to shoot blanks this time. They still tend to go mad when they don’t have the protective buffer of a war/battle situation.
If you want quick and easy death for someone, make a chair with an automated mounted gun pointed at the cranium. NRA will happily supply bullets, just as DAs will get the convictions.
We still need to change laws to stop pardoning judicial murders by overzealous prosecutors, though.
Except, of course, for the chance that they might kill again, especially a guard or another inmate.
Or don’t their lives matter?
Executions are murders sanctioned by the state. While they may betechnically legal, they are in direct conflict with the hipocratic oath taken by doctors worldwide.
They went to using drugs for executions because some people were squeamish about the other methods being used. How can the use of drugs be “cruel and unusual” if the first step is sedating the subject so they’re incapable of suffering?
Of course, we could also quit being squeamish and go back to the firing squad.
Or just open up a vein or artery and let them bleed out.
Except that the actual sight of blood would make too many of those who object to the death penalty puke.
If you can demonstrate that it wasn’t a mistake, but was intentional, then go for it. But only for those who can be proven to have had the intent to falsely convict.
Otherwise you’re no better than they are.
Because there are those who think that convicted murderers are more valuable than our military.
Why provide that benefit to those that took a life, when the one murdered for an unintentional mistake got no such benefit? Murder is murder. Massage it all you want, but when you take a life you commit murder. There is no justification.
If I follow your logic, you have suggested that I approve of the murder of prison guards, and it’s a small price to pay for the state to kill innocent people if they occasionally kill a sociopath.
I think I will decline to follow you down the rabbit hole on this one.
I watch CSI:Miami and Law & Order regularly, and I can tell you that the survival rate in prison for child killers is not very good. Hahahaha! Sorry, I realize that this subject is a serious one, and many individuals can get into some heated discussions on the pros and cons of the Death Penalty. Personally, I oppose capital punishment. It is like, “An eye for an eye…,” and well, no matter what we do as a society, we can’t actually achieve the ideal, although we may try to obtain justice in the name of the offended. But who does this really satisfy? Society – outraged at what one individual has done to another? Life is harder than Death – for the greater proportion of us. Society does not have the right to kill another individual on another’s behalf.
So, the Christians should have no problem with money being poured into government assistance for all the homeless, hungry and undocumented children and their families. We should all take them into our homes and feed and clothe them. To refuse the care of our fellow citizens is in direct conflict with the Bible.
Ja! They threw the CEO under the train, and by golly, he’s probably getting overpaid anyway!
I oppose the death penalty but executing people with an opiate they’d kill to get their hands on seems like rewarding them for their heinous crimes.
Great idea. That would work for me for Rick Perry, who is guilty of killing Cameron Todd Willingham while reasonable doubt remained. Google it. And Google the other Texas prosecutors who are in trouble for misconduct. They don’t want justice. They want notches on their belts and to be re-elected.
Who cares…he beat a 6 year old to death with a screwdriver and also submerged him in scalding water…execution was too humane for this p.o.s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He should have been castrated, submerged in scalding water, beaten half to death and then the same thing all over again! I will personally volunteer to do this to anyone who harms any child in any way.
Good to see more Christian American “exceptional-ism” vengeance on display.
The premise of “lethal injection” was always dubious in theory, and the method was always disgusting in practice. It’s a perversion of medicine, and a sorry attempt to make killing a human being seem like a therapeutic exercise.
IF we’re going to kill people to make a statement that killing people is wrong, we should at least use a method that doesn’t mock the practice of medicine.
What if the person is innocent?
Smart. Never feed the trolls.
Now why are hospital owners not up in arms about their religious views on corporal punishment being
administered with their drugs?…….
I think that the point here is that the state thought that it was ok to obtain a drug by false pretenses which is to say illegally. They are so anxious to execute this guy that they will lie and cheat to do it.
Apparently you do have a problem with logic, since yours seems to be based on the premise that most convicted criminals are actually innocent.
Of course, rather than the state killing innocent people to occasionally kill a sociopath, the reality is much closer to the state killing sociopaths, but occasionally killing an innocent. Killing an innocent does need to be minimized, but letting sociopaths live to kill again likely does as much or more damage.
So tell me, if a convicted murderer kills again, does the state get any of the blame for letting him live? Do you, for successfully opposing his execution?
No, when you take a life you don’t necessarily commit murder. In most jurisdictions, you could be justified for things like self-defense. There are also distinctions between 1st degree and 2nd degree murder and manslaughter.
Without the intent to falsely convict, you don’t have any justification for execution.
I agree. Maybe if our prison system was more severe. If you saw the last episode of breaking bad where Jessie was being held captive, that is somewhat what I have in mind ( minus the meth cooking ) I’d be ok with life in prison. Right now I just don’t see our prison system as punishment enough. Two days of torture for that little kid, I can’t get that out of my mind long enough to give a damn how we kill this lowlife.
Don’t look at capital punishment as either justice or “An eye for an eye”. It is, or should be, simple self defense, killing a demonstrated killer before he can kill again.
As such, it should be reserved for those cases where it is likely that the convicted individual would kill again, if given the chance.
isn’t that funny you support death penalty cause it kills someone but are against abortions cause it kills someone.it is falsification of use of drugs,they had not legal right to use the drug for execution.did they,they had to lie to the hospital.by the way abortions are legal according to scotus.just like you can use certain drugs with a medical prescription that would be illegal otherwise.dont let the law get in the way of your rants.if it was legal why did they not inform them of its use?
Sounds like the judge saw a way to make a little “non-profit” off the execution. Did anyone ask what the State paid for the drugs?
I’ll grant you self-defense. It isn’t really about intent, since the executed that is cleared of wrong-doing after the fact also had no intent. If we are willing to gamble that someone is guilty, then it’s only right that losing the “bet” carries the same cost. The point is, we wouldn’t be convicting these people unless there was zero doubt, if those convicting stood to suffer the same. That isn’t the case now because our justice system has become a perversion. Until there are penalties for being wrong that are equal to the ‘justice’ meted out, then there is no justice. There is only a shallow need for vengeance, which is not even worthy of being labeled as pathetic.
Against my better judgment . . .
I made a clear statement that human errors and/or agendas have put a significant number of innocent people on death row, a statement backed by the research of the Northwestern University Law School’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.
I said that this should make us question state sanctioned death sentences, to which I should add, should make any thoughtful person question state performed death sentences.
You have since suggested that I approve of killing prison guards, and you said that I felt that most convicted criminals are innocent. These are fabrications on your part. You further seemed to suggest that an occasional innocent person being put to death is the price we pay for the satisfaction of killing murderers.
I agree that it would be satisfying to kill sociopathic murderers in the name of justice. But since human error and/or agendas put a statistically significant number of innocent people on death row, I think we should deny ourselves that particular bit of blood lust. One man’s opinion.
Good day sir.
(Twitchypoo? That is a rather effete monicker for a wannabe executioner, no?)
Such a humane human being you are. 😀
“Properly permitted hospital pharmacies . . . can legally supply medications to other pharmacies, as long as
the drugs are for a hospital patient . . ”
So the prison broke the law to get the drugs. The drugs aren’t going to be used on patients at the hospital, but in the execution chamber of a prison.
Or will they only be breaking the law if they use the the drugs? I think if the common man acquitted the drugs by saying they were going to a hospital pharmacy and then took them before they arrived or after, out of that pharmacy, that would be at least one crime (and probably a felony)
How on earth is a killing a living human being anywhere the same as ending a pregnancy? You do realize that’s not a human inside a pregnant woman, right?
Please don’t lump Christians in with people that want to force their false rules of religion onto others who don’t have the same religion.
Most Christians realize that a fetus isn’t a child and thus an abortion does not cause a death. Some denominations are against abortion, but if they say it’s because it’s ‘murder’ they aren’t being honest. It’s because they want more and more population and they want people that that typically have abortions to have more babies and be even more desperate, poor, unhealthy and uneducated.
PLAIN & SIMPLE!! GET A ROPE!!! A BULLET OR FIRE UP OLD SPARKY !! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!! THE DRUG EXECUTION IS A SCAM LIBERALS FOISTED ON US SO THEY COULD ADJUDICATE THE DEATH PENALTY!! IF DEATH WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE MURDEREE IT IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE MURDERER!!!
YES !! IT’S THE CONCEPT THAT ESCAPES LIBERALS!!! MURDER IS MURDER AT ANY LEVEL OF EXISTENCE!!!
ABORTION IS MUCH WORSE THAN MURDER IT’S INFANTICIDE!!!
Writing it in all caps doesn’t make it true.
True Christians can not, according to the words of Jesus Christ condone the death penalty. If States must murder people, at least do it with a giant shot of morphine so they are instantly dead.
I think that 8 of the BESE members, all of the charter network boards, and all TFA and Teach NOLA individuals should take an undocumented child into their homes and apartments. Chas Roemer should take in 10 undocumented children to atone for his greedy and corrupt ways while “doing time” on earth. That’s for starters. If they do that, I believe that an accord on the Death Penalty will be reached, and World Peace too!
You mean “the ultimate high,” Thomas? That’s a good one. You got me there.
well said, and I’m pretty sure the majority of decent people feel the same way,,, people forget who the actual victim was in this case.
I promise – I will never hurt your child! I tole you dese discussions can get hot! Damn!
Amen, brother!
I “think” I agree with what you are saying theoretically and in practice. It mocks the field of medicine and flies in the face of the Hippocratic Oath. How about we support the JPSO and guns to carry out the Death Penalty phase, i.e., execution? They seem like an
able and willing group. They shoot feral hogs and nutria. That’s what they call “target practice.”
It appears that “the hospital” blamed it on the CEO, and since they are paying him, he better damn well accept the blame!
This is the third time in two days, I have seen the word “foist” in some type of posting.Hold on! We may have “Universal Consciousness” going on here. Is everybody sure all of this is REAL or are we in some kind of weird computer program? OMG! Who got knocked out of the program?
I think he should be executed by being beaten by a screwdriver and submerged in scalding water. A six year old little boy? OMG!!! What a monster!
I agree!
… but it is conservatives who consistently rebuke science in favor of illogical biblical myths. How can logical people believe a myth as fact, yet scream that they are logical. Your point is highly illogical. Creationism much?
Jesus H Christ! Not only should Christians disallow the Death Penalty for convicted chlld killers, but we shouldn’t slap them either. BTW, I oppose capital punishment, but I would put them in jail without any chance of ever being released. And considering the jails and the many prisoners, who despite their errant ways, miss their children and their families, child killers don’t fare too well, and if allowed into the general population, meet with accidents! That may be as close to Justice as anybody is going to get.
Again, I agree. Gonna be hard to shake the horror of what that poor little boy suffered now that it’s in my head. Stuff like that really bothers me.
There is a blogger further up the line who has volunteered to do this. U mite want to check her out!
time for the firing squad……
He assumed those drugs used for ‘legitimate and noble purposes’?
With a state that does executions??
And a Prison system that rarely gives any inmate anything north of ibuprofen and charges them $5 a pill at the Sheriff’s brother-in-law commissary??
That has the other brother-in-law with the special phone company that singularly owns the ONLY phone in the jail?? (and owns no phones anywhere else)
I find his surprise a bit much, to be frank. Educated people can’t be that disengaged.
Isn’t like people care about anyone in prison, like they care about the innocent people there waiting for trial or just flat out scrod by people lying or worse.
Am not saying there are not bad people, but this system of ‘justice has become perpetual and more based on vengeance, there are too many people who draw their existence from this system and would not want to see it change in any way.
If people stopped committing crimes and suddenly there weren’t as many people in the system, there would be a LOT of very well paid people out of work. Does anyone truly believe that cops would be thrilled to get laid off for no more crime??
As to this death penalty stuff, those idiots in Arizona botched it for everyone. Supreme Court is gonna rule it is ‘cruel and unusual’ because it is. They stuck him dozens and dozens of times with enough to poison 60 men and they couldn’t find a stupid vein. Might have been wise before the ‘event’ to find a person with enough medical background (but no one who has taken and strictly follows The Hippocratic Oath) and Arizona just didn’t seem to think it mattered.
They have ceded the high ground away for y’all, just so you know.
There may be a few who think that this is ‘just’, but the state has a higher obligation to carry these sentences out in a proper way, and what we saw in Arizona was not that way in any shape or form.
Is a lot coming out in Texas about just how many times people on the prosecution side have lied or buried evidence that would free people and they are finding out they likely have executed more than one innocent person.
We are supposed to be better than this, if I have to hear all that ‘Christian Nation’ nonsense every election cycle, then they need to put that rubber to the road when it matters.
It may very well be the ‘Christian thing’, that removing the threat from society, is as far as a civilized nation should go. In cases where you have ZERO doubt, then Capital punishment is likely more acceptable.
But now, the states are not even taking this seriously anymore. They don’t care if they get the vein, if it takes hours, if the witnesses get to see this. If the state can’t do this correctly, they will remove the option for everyone else.
Am telling you all, is very very likely that Texas, Florida, Louisiana or another state has executed a person who was not guilty of that crime. There is far too much corruption and embedded, perpetual systems that require ‘results’ over truth.
Most every cost analysis has shown that executing a person costs more than lifetime incarceration.
So we would save money and we could also take back a mistake, at least partly, if we find it has been made. These cases where innocents have been executed, these same folks who make $ for a living are none to eager to have anyone revisit any of it.
It has long NOT been the search for truth and anyone who has ever been involved or witnessed a felony court case KNOWS that the Truth is heavily, filtered, diluted, handled and sanitized for your protection…..
If they got 100% proof, then do a firing squad, quit dorking around with this. They are going to LOSE the option of having the death penalty if states keep charging into these Hippocratic nightmarish conundrums….
Nice to see that the voyeuristic serial killers have drooled their way to the computer to sing the presses of legal serial murder
Yawn
Murder is worse than murder? Wow; the logic of Your comment just amazes me with horror–kinda like hitler’s extermination policies is amazing, and horrid.
Why do these scumbags have protection of cruel and unusual punishment, that poor child suffered a very cruel and unusual death. Kill him how he killed.
At any level of existence, huh? So I assume you don’t eat meat? Or vegetables, for that matter.
They’re not always “killers” or even criminals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Stinney
So, they could be charged with involuntary manslaughter? But there’s a clear component of premeditation… I think if you plan to kill someone, even based on inaccurate information (or, really, incorrect judgement is more often the case), it’s still murder.
I think it is about intent. If the individual was falsely convicted, then I’m all for giving the guilty parties, the ones who intentionally falsely convicted, the same sentence the falsely-convicted was given, up to and including death, even if the sentence was never actually carried out.
But, generally, incompetence, or being wrong, isn’t a crime. Even where it is, and results in death, the offender doesn’t get the death penalty. That’s involuntary manslaughter, at worst.
As for “our justice system has become a perversion”, our justice system is probably in the best shape it’s ever been in.
Which is a good argument for review of past convictions and the evidence.
If they convicted falsely, and intent to convict falsely can be proven, then it wouldn’t be involuntary manslaughter, it would be murder.
However, a court finding someone guilty, even when they’re sentenced to death, based on incorrect information is not enough for intent, at least not for anyone who wasn’t complicit in providing or creating the incorrect information.
“I made a clear statement that human errors and/or agendas have put a significant number of innocent people on death row, a statement backed by the research of the Northwestern University Law School’s Center on Wrongful Convictions.”
According to their latest report, that’s a total of 105 people over the last 25 years, or about 4 a year, and dropping. OTOH, over that same time period, dozens, at least, have been murdered by killers who had already been convicted of murder, so one has to wonder how many innocent lives have been saved by the death penalty.
It doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, have anything to do with “satisfaction” or “justice” or “blood lust”. The death penalty is simple self defense, killing proven murderers before they can kill again.
(“Twitchy”, the true star of the movie Hoodwinked!, was taken.)
No, apparently they let convicted murderers out to kill again.
Stereotype much?
Naw; just diagnose a lot
After reading all of the comments posted below, I must awe in disbelief. Some of the people posting in support of the death penalty seem to think that just because a person is sentenced to death it means that the death must be barbaric. Nothing can be further from the truth. What about those who are sentenced to 4 or 5 years and are murdered at the hands of prison guards when they did nothing wrong but become ill. Yes, that’s what I said; nothing more than becoming ill. All you have to do is watch this video from YouTube and you will see a mentally ill man murdered by state employees while they laugh and scoff at him. So sad, and yet he was not even sentenced to death. Do you think these government employees should be tried and convicted and sentenced to death? I certainly do. The true character of a society is revealed in the treatment of its most vulnerable members. America has become dishonorable and devoid of empathy. Here is the link to the video. I must warn you that what you will watch is very disturbing but the prisoner is murdered by these state employees for no reason other than being ill.
Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqdLDLiyiwQ
Abortion is legal. Don’t like it? Don’t have one, train guys to keep their respective ducks out of women,work to expand access to birth control and teach sexual health to fifth graders.
IOW, no thought, just emotion?
That’s your best shot? A 70 year old case from the days of Jim Crow and long before DNA?
In Your response? Why, yes!