Death Row inmate says he is too fat to be executed
 

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Aug...yCooey,00.html

I'm not sure if I understand why this is such an issue.

1) Why does it even matter if they can feel pain or not when they die? I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant or peaceful experience when the 2 girls he raped and murdered were enduring what he was doing to them.

2) If it really does matter that he is in such a state of comfort when he dies, why can't they put him on a diet and take him off those meds?

Because the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids the government from imposing "cruel and unusual punishment."

Yes, we have heard this one before. It would be inhumane. Yadda yadda yadda. Was it uncruel and usual what you did to your victim?

That was along the lines of my thinking.

Whatever he did to whoever else obviously wasn't a pleasant experience... because it got him on death row... why again do we owe him one?

Is he just trying to get out of it or something by saying "well, sorry guys! I know I was sentenced to die for raping & murdering people, but I'm too big! I'll just hang out here for 40 more years until I die naturally!"

I see your point. And yeah, it was beyond cruel and inhumane what he did to his victims.

That doesn't change the fact that the Founding Fathers, following developments in English law, believed it was important to prohibit cruel and unusual punishment. It also doesn't change that many courts have found lethal injection to violate this provision if there is not adequate guarantee of unconciousness prior to execution. While it has upheld lethal injection in general, the Supreme Court has still left open the possibility that in some instances, lethal injection could violate the Eighth Amendment.

And sure he's trying to get out of it.

He's not too much of a lard ass to be lethally injected.

If this excuse flies, maybe they can put him on a health and fitness plan. Except it will be so he can die sooner rather than live longer.

I'm sure there's some gallows sturdy enough to hold him.

If only we could get Isaac Parker to come back from the grave to Ft. Smith.

his victim was too much alive to die...but he killed them....

"Would you get skinny already so we can finally just kill you?!?"

yeah that would go over well... lol

It's not that difficult to place a central line for IV access. Yeah it has to be an MD to place the line, but it can be done very easily. As for the medication issue, I'm sure that won't hold up either. If it does then everyone on death row is going to get fat and use the same excuse.

Exactly - we can go back and forth about the moral issues involved, but this is the major point. I'm guessing that this situation, however self-induced, would be one of those situations where it would be "cruel and unusual."

It doesn't excuse what he did, but it's the reality of the law.

A sledgehammer to the noggin would make him unconscious before the injections...

I motion to bring back the guillotine.

Cosign

My brother often said, "How much does a bullet cost?"

Maybe they could simply drug his Twinkies and Ho-Hos?

L. O. L.

Most physicians will have nothing to do with that because of their "do no harm" clause.

Maybe because we're supposed better and more humane than a murderer? It makes us no better than him if we make him suffer, though we're no better than him in putting him to death anyways. Personally I think any form of capital punishment is barbarous, and most of the civilized world agrees, but apparently not the Supreme Court.

Isn't Kevorkian looking for work?
Or me.

It sounds to me like an elephant tranquilizer could just put this whole problem to a screeching halt...

Seriously, if they're worried that the anethsetic will not properly function why can't they use something more strong or 'effective'?

We still have hanging here in my state (last one was in 1993). But a prisoner won a hearing years ago to have his death sentence by hanging changed to lethal injection because at more than 400 lbs. medical advisors said he would be decapitated.

In all seriousness, I take a Michel Foucault approach to punishment. I don't believe in cruel and unusual punishments. Such actions on the part of the state undermine the roles of institution of formal social control and punishment.

If the man is found to be medically incapable of lethal injection, they need to make adjustments. If he's just trying to get out of it and he's capable of lethal injection, stick it to him.

Y'all have to watch this from The Onion:

"Supreme Court rules death penalty is totally badass"

http://www.theonion.com/content/vide..._death_penalty

Isn't that what happened to Saddam's brother?

Yeah, selective citation of the Hippocratic Oath, although I'm not sure where you get "most." That "do no harm" stuff doesn't seem to bother lots of doctors when it comes to abortion. (Nor, for that matter, does that specific line in the Hippocratic Oath, now usually left out altogether: "I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy.")

I know that there are medical baords that say they cannot allow doctors to participate in executions because it would violate medical ethics. I also know that there have been court decisions saying that if the state requires the presence of a doctor, the medical board can't discipline the doctor for doing what the law requires.

His half-brother's head reportedly snapped off during the execution; here's a CNN report on it: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/...ons/index.html

I'm anti-capital punishment (yes, anti-death penalty Republicans do exist), so this story doesn't bother me quite as much. Although, I think eating yourself out of an execution is an interesting strategy.

I laughed at this. He did the deed so he has to pay for his crime, no matter how fat he is now.
MysticCat, is his lawyers defense valid? I served on a jury for the first time recently, and suddenly have this newfound curiosity for all finer points of law. Having someone's future put into your hands (shared by 12 others) is a very daunting task. I hardly slept the night before we had to deliberate.:)

stupid question: how do people get fat in prison? i thought meals and such were limited.

He got fat by blowing Bubbles.

Time to dust off Old Sparky.

LOL.

"whoa"
"h*ly sh*t"
"that's wicked"

I like it best where she says something like "This marks the Roberts court as less strictly constitutional and more strictly awesome."

I used to think that too. I think though they are fed pretty well (3 meals a day) which is more than poor families probably eat per day that haven't broken the law to get into prison.

I also don't refuse to operate on those who 'labor under the stone', I don't worship ancient Greek gods and goddesses, and I don't offer my former attendings loans if they're short on cash.

The Hippocratic Oath was a great idea in ancient times. We've evolved a little since then.

The older I get, the more I don't like the death penalty either. Some see it as eye-for-an-eye, but I just think the "right" side should try to do better than that. Either way, I think it's barbaric when people celebrate an execution. Executions are never ideal.

So is exercise for death row inmates.

Of course. That's as it should be. Which is why I always look a little askance at people who cite it when convenient for them (like in a death penalty argument), but otherwise deem it a thing of the past.

ETA: I'll back off a little, though. I went back and checked, and while similar language is in the Greek version of the Hippocratic Oath, the phrase "do no harm" itself apparently does not come from there, but rather is Latin in origin. So perhaps the reference to the Oath isn't quite on point after all.

Now that Valerie has lost the weight, isn't Jenny Craig looking for a spokesperson?

I'm conservative in a lot of other ways - but when it comes to capital punishment, I've changed my thinking. I won't preach to others or tell them how they should feel, because it's not my place, but I can't personally support it.

while putting the fattie on a diet would work, that costa money, and taxpayer money at that, right?

i dont want to pay for some rapist killer to get just in shape enough to die. take that sucker out. he's just using up resources at this point.

from a law perspective, can someone answer why it takes so long to perform an execution? this happened 20+ years ago.