The tragic death of Ledell Lee
April 28, 2017 12:17 AM Subscribe
The US State of Arkansas killed a man convicted of murder, Ledell Lee, a few days ago even as considerable doubt remained about his guilt and the fairness of his trial and despite his own insistence that he was innocent of the crime. The reason the State of Arkansas was in such a hurry to execute him and three other people on death row? Their lethal injection drugs were close to the expiry date. Elizabeth Vartkessian talked to Leddel Lee and read his life story.
The New York Times reported he was killed 16 minutes before the death warrant expired at midnight and interviewed five people who have witnessed state executions including Marine Glisovic, a reporter for KATV in Little Rock watched Lidell Lee die: "It’s almost set up like a mini-movie theater. There was a black curtain in front of four window panels.They peeled back the curtain, and the inmate is lying down already, and he’s got an IV in each arm. He’s horizontal before us. He stared up the entire time. When they peeled that curtain down, they turned the lights off in our room, the witness room, so the only thing that was lit up was the chamber. As it’s going on, it’s quiet. No one’s saying anything. It was very sterile and clinical. It was like watching somebody be put to sleep, if you will. It is probably the shortest yet longest 11 minutes of my life. No matter what anyone says, there’s really nothing to prepare you for what you are about to see." If you hit the paywall there is a PDF of the interviews.
The New York Times reported he was killed 16 minutes before the death warrant expired at midnight and interviewed five people who have witnessed state executions including Marine Glisovic, a reporter for KATV in Little Rock watched Lidell Lee die: "It’s almost set up like a mini-movie theater. There was a black curtain in front of four window panels.They peeled back the curtain, and the inmate is lying down already, and he’s got an IV in each arm. He’s horizontal before us. He stared up the entire time. When they peeled that curtain down, they turned the lights off in our room, the witness room, so the only thing that was lit up was the chamber. As it’s going on, it’s quiet. No one’s saying anything. It was very sterile and clinical. It was like watching somebody be put to sleep, if you will. It is probably the shortest yet longest 11 minutes of my life. No matter what anyone says, there’s really nothing to prepare you for what you are about to see." If you hit the paywall there is a PDF of the interviews.
Getting actual medical professionals to do the job is problematic, and they have somebody else do it. Results are what you would expect - here's Cecil Adams on the subject:
Why does lethal injection go wrong so often?
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:51 AM on April 28, 2017 [7 favorites]
Why does lethal injection go wrong so often?
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:51 AM on April 28, 2017 [7 favorites]
@supercrayon : A simple gas chamber with 2% carbon monoxide would be more 'humane' than a bullet, but IMHO executions are inhumane to begin with. That's why they can't get hold of the pentobarbital that is used to humanely put down animals that are suffering. But I take your point.
posted by toycamera at 2:52 AM on April 28, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by toycamera at 2:52 AM on April 28, 2017 [5 favorites]
I find a good way to shut people down when they argue in favour of the death penalty is to ask what percentage of wrongful executions they feel are acceptable. If the answer is 'none', that's effectively an argument against the death penalty. If they can come up with a number... well, good luck defending that.
posted by pipeski at 3:36 AM on April 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by pipeski at 3:36 AM on April 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's around 4% in the US, by the way
posted by pipeski at 3:43 AM on April 28, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by pipeski at 3:43 AM on April 28, 2017 [4 favorites]
> ...ask what percentage of wrongful executions they feel are acceptable.
This is a good way to discover how many people around you believe nobody has been wrongly executed in the U.S. Even when somebody is exonerated for the specific crime that put them on death row, the mob may insist that the person was wrongly exonerated, or deserves to die for some other crime that they might or might not have been convicted for, or even just rumored to have been committed.
posted by at by at 4:04 AM on April 28, 2017 [11 favorites]
This is a good way to discover how many people around you believe nobody has been wrongly executed in the U.S. Even when somebody is exonerated for the specific crime that put them on death row, the mob may insist that the person was wrongly exonerated, or deserves to die for some other crime that they might or might not have been convicted for, or even just rumored to have been committed.
posted by at by at 4:04 AM on April 28, 2017 [11 favorites]
On the wrongful execution question, cf Rick Perry
posted by Karaage at 4:06 AM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Karaage at 4:06 AM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
FWIW pipeski's argument (combined with DNA evidence exonerating some on death row and some who had already been executed) are what changed my mind on the death penalty c. 2 decades ago.
It's way past time for this cruel and even statistically unusual punishment to end.
posted by nat at 4:19 AM on April 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
It's way past time for this cruel and even statistically unusual punishment to end.
posted by nat at 4:19 AM on April 28, 2017 [3 favorites]
Even when somebody is exonerated for the specific crime that put them on death row, the mob may insist that the person was wrongly exonerated, or deserves to die for some other crime that they might or might not have been convicted for, or even just rumored to have been committed.
I have many reasons to dislike Scalia, but this (PDF warning) argument always sticks out in my mind:
posted by Candleman at 4:31 AM on April 28, 2017 [12 favorites]
I have many reasons to dislike Scalia, but this (PDF warning) argument always sticks out in my mind:
This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent...Regardless of the technical truth of the statement, it is a vile argument to defend.
posted by Candleman at 4:31 AM on April 28, 2017 [12 favorites]
It really is grotesque how the progress of execution methods has been toward the technological, supposedly in the service of ethics, but in fact producing more and more terrifying ordeals for condemned prisoners.... .....I'd personally prefer being shot or even hanged to, say, the electric chair, or the gas chamber......I suppose lethal injection was supposed to be, finally, the culmination of this cruel arc in a "humane" execution, but see for yourself how that has worked out.
posted by thelonius at 5:23 AM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by thelonius at 5:23 AM on April 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Ten countries that still embrace capital punishment.
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 5:58 AM on April 28, 2017
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 5:58 AM on April 28, 2017
> I find a good way to shut people down when they argue in favour of the death penalty is to ask what percentage of wrongful executions they feel are acceptable. If the answer is 'none', that's effectively an argument against the death penalty. If they can come up with a number... well, good luck defending that.
I've encountered an unfortunate number of people (here on metafilter, even) who are okay with some small number of "whoops!" executions as long as they get to believe that everyone else who's executed is really really terrible and deserves it.
posted by rtha at 6:46 AM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
I've encountered an unfortunate number of people (here on metafilter, even) who are okay with some small number of "whoops!" executions as long as they get to believe that everyone else who's executed is really really terrible and deserves it.
posted by rtha at 6:46 AM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
On that Scalia quote from Candleman, perhaps the Court has never held that actual innocence be a factor. Seems to me like that was a pretty good opportunity to ACTUALLY WEIGH IN ON THAT.
"I've never shot someone," as I point the gun and start to squeeze the trigger...
posted by notsnot at 7:05 AM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
"I've never shot someone," as I point the gun and start to squeeze the trigger...
posted by notsnot at 7:05 AM on April 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
Candleman: I have many reasons to dislike Scalia, but this argument always sticks out in my mind
Related, in a way: Harvard Project Outlines Pattern Of Attorney Failures In Arkansas Death Row Cases (NPR, April 24, 2017)
And if somehow people aren't swayed by the inhumane ways we kill people who have been convicted under these shoddy circumstances, perhaps point out that 88% of the country’s top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, and toss in the fact that it's expensive to pursue death penalty cases.
Let's be blunt: the death penalty is the ultimate vindictive option to punish poor and minority offenders, in a system designed for retribution, not justice, and definitely not atonement for crimes. Once a criminal, always a criminal, in the eyes of so many involved in deciding how criminal justice operates.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:02 AM on April 28, 2017 [12 favorites]
Related, in a way: Harvard Project Outlines Pattern Of Attorney Failures In Arkansas Death Row Cases (NPR, April 24, 2017)
All eight death row cases in Arkansas had examples of attorney failures, including drunk lawyers, a conflict of interest affair involving a judge, lawyers missing deadlines, and failure to disclose mental disorders.Yes, let's rush to kill these people because our "death drugs" will expire.
And if somehow people aren't swayed by the inhumane ways we kill people who have been convicted under these shoddy circumstances, perhaps point out that 88% of the country’s top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide, and toss in the fact that it's expensive to pursue death penalty cases.
Let's be blunt: the death penalty is the ultimate vindictive option to punish poor and minority offenders, in a system designed for retribution, not justice, and definitely not atonement for crimes. Once a criminal, always a criminal, in the eyes of so many involved in deciding how criminal justice operates.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:02 AM on April 28, 2017 [12 favorites]
This is not ok.
posted by bq at 9:04 AM on April 28, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by bq at 9:04 AM on April 28, 2017 [4 favorites]
I am ok with the state having a monopoly on lethal violence, and I think there are situations where execution could be argued to be both practical and ethical. I don't believe that humans will ever be able to administer the "death penalty" in any way that could be fair, just or unbiased, though - and all attempts to do so thus far have only made the practice more costly and less practical. So, I think it should be universally abolished.
All that said, we've known for decades now that combining ethanol - especially in the form of tasty alcoholic beverages - and opiates/opioids - especially administered intravenously - is an extremely effective, and by all accounts pleasant way to kill someone. It is also significantly less expensive than the commonly-used "3-drug cocktail".
posted by Anoplura at 4:14 PM on April 28, 2017
All that said, we've known for decades now that combining ethanol - especially in the form of tasty alcoholic beverages - and opiates/opioids - especially administered intravenously - is an extremely effective, and by all accounts pleasant way to kill someone. It is also significantly less expensive than the commonly-used "3-drug cocktail".
posted by Anoplura at 4:14 PM on April 28, 2017
I think "humane" is coded language in discussions of lethal injection for capital punishment. The people being accommodated are the witnesses and custodians of the process, not the victim. The worst mess somebody who dies of lethal injection can make is voiding themselves. There should be very little blood and none of the smell of burnt flesh, loose body parts, etc., that other traditional execution methods cause. The only evidence of violence is the victim's spasming. The guards only have to bag up and wheel out an intact body and sweep up.
The greater disengagement between the victim's humanity and the public, the easier it is for capital punishment to perpetuate. Since the law prevents clandestine executions, making the process seem as clinical as possible reduces the presentation of the victim's role to that of a passive recipient of a medical procedure, not the slaying that it is.
So providing a lethal injection process that actually would be humane is not so much contrary to the goal of capital punishment, but irrelevant to it. As long as the kill is clean, they don't care what the victim feels.
In any event, if it's difficult for Arkansas to buy enough potassium chloride to kill somebody, it's going to be considerably more difficult to get opioids for the same purpose, considering how strictly regulated they are even for legitimate medical care.
posted by at by at 6:22 AM on April 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
The greater disengagement between the victim's humanity and the public, the easier it is for capital punishment to perpetuate. Since the law prevents clandestine executions, making the process seem as clinical as possible reduces the presentation of the victim's role to that of a passive recipient of a medical procedure, not the slaying that it is.
So providing a lethal injection process that actually would be humane is not so much contrary to the goal of capital punishment, but irrelevant to it. As long as the kill is clean, they don't care what the victim feels.
In any event, if it's difficult for Arkansas to buy enough potassium chloride to kill somebody, it's going to be considerably more difficult to get opioids for the same purpose, considering how strictly regulated they are even for legitimate medical care.
posted by at by at 6:22 AM on April 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
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Midazolam is used for conscious sedation before people go in for procedures. It's a mild sedative, and supresses anxiety as well as having a mild amnesiac effect.
Potassium chloride is given to correct people's electrolyte imbalances. Too much or too little potassium in the blood can cause heart arrythmias or cardiac arrest. When you give it intravenously it burns. It has to be massively diluted before administration and given slowly over a long period.
It is utterly obscene to use these drugs to kill people with. I sincerely doubt you could knock someone out completely even with a whopping great dose of midaz. And giving someone something that would fucking burn your entire arm and stop your heart is cruel and gross and sickening.
You know, why even fuck around? Drop the pretense, drag these poor bastards out behind the prison and put a bullet in their heads. It would be more humane, and it would stop people from pretending that lethal injection is anything other than a barbaric miscarriage of justice and basic decency.
The thing I keep coming back to is that it's not the easiest thing to insert IV lines. Even nurses fuck it up quite often. Which begs a couple questions: I suppose there are medical professionals of some stripe involved in these executions. How the fuck do they still have licenses let alone wake up and look in the mirror after utterly betraying everything we stand for? How are they allowed to keep their anonymity? How are they able to walk around and presumably perform their dayjobs while participating in state sanctioned murder as a fucking side gig?
posted by supercrayon at 1:29 AM on April 28, 2017 [81 favorites]