To read the tribute to SFC Marcus Muralles, please click here
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Cruel and Unusual Punishment?
Angel Diaz died yesterday. Don't shed a tear. Really. He got a double dose of the killer cocktail care of the state of Florida, and the world is a better place for it. (dang... not sounding all that charitable and Christ-like, am I? I'll work on that...)
There was just one problem with his execution- it took 34 minutes instead of the normal 15, and it appeared as if he was in pain during the process. Like I said, they ended up giving him a double dose of the drugs before he finally died. And, evidently, that's cruel and unusual punishment.
But the anti-death penalty crowd is right on one thing. He did take too long to die. Almost 27 years is far too long.
As for the 34 minutes and the grimace? Yeah... that was too long, too. I mean, seriously... how long does it take a sharp shooter to pull the trigger, anyway?
There was just one problem with his execution- it took 34 minutes instead of the normal 15, and it appeared as if he was in pain during the process. Like I said, they ended up giving him a double dose of the drugs before he finally died. And, evidently, that's cruel and unusual punishment.
"I am definitely appalled at what happened. I have no doubt he suffered unduly," Angel Nieves Diaz's attorney, Suzanne Myers Keffer, said after Diaz died by injection.This is from the same group of people who had Old Sparky retired.
Foes of capital punishment seized on the execution to argue that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment, just as they did after two inmates' heads caught fire in Florida's electric chair in 1990 and 1997 and a condemned man suffered a severe nosebleed in 2000 during his electrocution.uh... yeah... more humane. Just how humanely did Diaz kill Joseph Nagy? Was there any mercy? Did he try to make sure it wasn't cruel and unusual? I didn't think so.
Those cases led Florida to get rid of the electric chair and switch to lethal injection, which was portrayed as more humane and more reliable.
But the anti-death penalty crowd is right on one thing. He did take too long to die. Almost 27 years is far too long.
As for the 34 minutes and the grimace? Yeah... that was too long, too. I mean, seriously... how long does it take a sharp shooter to pull the trigger, anyway?
