‘Splatter From an Execution’

Posted on | July 25, 2014 | 119 Comments

Yesterday, reacting to the botched lethal-injection execution of an Arizona murderer, I said: “Bring Back the Firing Squad. . . . It was good enough for Gary Gilmore.” And most people probably thought, “Hahaha. Stacy’s just being sarcastic again.” Well, guess what? A federal appeals court judge had made basically the same argument:

“Using drugs meant for individuals with medical needs to carry out executions is a misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and beautiful — like something any one of us might experience in our final moments,” U.S. 9th Circuit Court Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote in a dissent in the Arizona death penalty case of Joseph Rudolph Wood III.
“But executions are, in fact, brutal, savage events, and nothing the state tries to do can mask that reality. Nor should we. If we as a society want to carry out executions, we should be willing to face the fact that the state is committing a horrendous brutality on our behalf.” . . .
His dissent could be read as much as an indictment of capital punishment as a call for harsher methods, however. He cited California’s inability to execute anyone since 2006 because of legal challenges.
“Old age, not execution, is the most serious risk factor for inmates at the San Quentin death row,” he wrote.
In calling for firing squads, Kozinski said, “Eight or 10 large-caliber rifle bullets fired at close range can inflict massive damage, causing instant death every time.”
He said the public should not shield itself “from the reality we are shedding human blood.”
“If we as a society cannot stomach the splatter from an execution carried out by a firing squad, then we shouldn’t be carrying out executions at all.”
Kozinski, a Ronald Reagan appointee, is known for writing audacious, thought-provoking rulings, and legal scholars have been poring over his dissent.

Read the whole thing. My attitude about the death penalty is basically the same as my attitude about war: Git ‘er done.

A hard war makes for a long peace. War by half-measures, hemmed in by political concerns and fears of offending delicate sensibilities, can never accomplish war’s purpose, i.e., to defeat the enemy and force his submission. We ought not deceive ourselves about what war is.

Like the man said, “Talk thus to the marines.”

If we are not prepared to destroy the enemy — to devastate him with the utmost in lethal force — we ought never go to war. If our cause is so just that we will risk the blood of our bravest sons to conquer a foe, it does not behoove us to be too sensitive about the blood of our enemies. A nation that is afraid of war is a decadent nation, and will ultimately be conquered by others.

Similarly, we must not deceive ourselves about the death penalty. It is “humane” only in the sense that it is necessary to protect the innocent from the depredations of savages. Joseph Woods shot to death 55-year-old Gene Dietz, the father of his ex-girlfriend. As Debbie Dietz frantically tried to telephone for help, Woods grabbed her by the neck and said: “I told you I was going to do it. . . . I have to kill you, bitch.” And then he shot her to death, too.

You want to tell me Joseph Woods deserved a humane death? You want to tell me that a firing squad — or the noose, the gas chamber or the electric chair — would be a violation of the killer’s “rights”? You are siding with savages against the innocent.

Category: Crime

Comments

119 Responses to “‘Splatter From an Execution’”

Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:09 pm

1. If you fancy that public utterances by bishops constitute an ‘establishment of religion’, you are seriously misinformed. (And if you fancy that muzzling bishops would not constitute an infringement on ‘the free exercise thereof’ or ‘freedom of speech’, you’re also seriously misinformed’

2. The positive law is never its own justification.
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:10 pm

The perpetrator is already locked up, and no longer any threat to the
community. justice has been served, and the threat neutralized.

1. Since when is that the only consideration?

2. I take it you don’t work in the prison system.
Adriane
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:10 pm

No threat to the public?!?

He murdered two members of that public: Gene Dietz and Debbie Dietz.

Were they rival gang bosses? And thus, in what passes for your logic, deserve their hit?
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:11 pm

Again, see Cdl. Dulles on the specific question of capital sentences. (And just about any clergyman on proof-texting).
EnoughOfThat
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:11 pm

You have a double standard and a semantic argument for everything. If you didn’t you wouldn’t be able to believe you’re right. If Jesus committed sedition, and attempted overthrow Roman rule then he broke the law like all the other would be messiahs, and was executed for his crimes.
Matt_SE
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:12 pm

Is this multiple people using the same screen name, or are you schizophrenic?
Why are you questioning your own posts?
Matt_SE
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:14 pm

The rapidity and length of responses leads me to believe that “Enough of that’s” posts are being made my multiple people.
richard mcenroe
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:16 pm

Because why?
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:16 pm

The running joke on one of the Catholic boards I contribute to is that the sorosphere has people on retainer to jam discussions (in that sort of form, when homosexuality is the topic). I’m not sure it’s not true.
Matt_SE
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:17 pm

1) Then the utterances of bishops carries no special weight in this discussion. They are just one more interest-group.
2) Explain.
richard mcenroe
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:18 pm

We can, when we vote. That’s written down somewhere.
Dana
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:18 pm

When the Framers wrote, and the states ratified, the Eighth Amendment, the most common form of execution was hanging, The Framers were clearly aware that such was the method of execution, and not a single one of them said anything which would indicate that they thought hanging fell under the definition of cruel or unusual punishments. Hanging is as clearly constitutional as any form of execution could be.
Matt_SE
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:19 pm

Good, then we agree: the advocacy of religious figures carries no special weight in this debate.
Dana
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:20 pm

One would have thought, from your comment, that you’d have agreed with EBL, but, apparently not. You praised us Catholics for having gotten it right, but what we got right was the sanctity of life, from conception to natural death.
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:21 pm

1. No clue what your issue is. You loathe bishops. We get it. That’s not binding on anyone else.

2. You cited the federal Constitution (Incorrectly, I might add). That would only be definitive if the positive law were at issue. Since your complaining about citations to bishops in an internet discussion, the positive law is not at issue and is not controlling (unless you fancy someone citing a bishop is violating it, which is silly).
Dana
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:21 pm

No, no, no,no, no! Do NOT use Bing, don’t ever use Bing! I hate Bing, I despise Bing, I abominate Bing!
Matt_SE
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:22 pm

Also, you have responded multiple times below to your own posts, sometimes with a strange dissociation from your own prior point.
Dana
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:23 pm

The Catechism spells it out clearly: capital punishment is acceptable when there are no rational alternatives — something a nomadic people lacked — but that in nations with modern penal systems, capital punishment is almost never necessary.
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:24 pm

Have you confused me with someone else? I’ve responded to you, Colorado Alex, and “Enough”. I do not respond to my own posts accept to add an addendum or correction.
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:25 pm

Again, I am responding to Colorado Alex. I have not responded to any of my own posts.
Matt_SE
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:27 pm

Nice strawman. I don’t “loathe” bishops, and never said I did.
Nice appeal to popularity: “We get it.” Or were you referring to your multiple personalities again?
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:27 pm

I understand the Catechism says that. I also understand that the authors of that bullet were making a sociological statement and that’s not binding on their flock.

Also, executions were carried out in the Papal States into the 19th century. The Papal States were not a nomadic society.
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:30 pm

I have only one perspective, and I’ve offered it here. Colorado Alex appears to be offering an internally contradictory argument. That’s his issue, not mine.
Matt_SE
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:31 pm

The little arrow next to your screen name shows who you were responding to. There are several instances of “EnoughOfThat -> EnoughOfThat”
If you wish to add to previous responses to Colorado Alex, either respond to the original post, or use the “edit” link.
It keeps the chain of responses more clear.
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:31 pm

No, there’s just me and no I am not questioning any of my posts.
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:34 pm

I am not ‘EnoughofThat’. I am ‘Art Deco’. I have contended with different aspects of what each of the three of you have said here (and one remark of “Dana”.)
Matt_SE
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:35 pm

There is no commenter below that I can see named “Enough.” Only “EnoughOfThat,” most often in red text, a couple of times in gray.
And yes, you have responded several times to your own posts.
JeffS
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:37 pm

True, but his imagination is where he lives. Hence, the analysis is valid, even though within an extremely tight locus.
Art Deco
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:39 pm

When I referred to “Enough” I meant “EnoughofThat”. No mystery.

No, I have not responded to any of my posts. You are confused.

One oddity is that the Disqus nesting is not working consistently today.
DeadMessenger
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:49 pm

God created men to be protectors and providers, and women to be nurturers. As a woman, I personally, want a man – or men – between me and danger. Conversely, it’s also my right to stand by and wring my hands helplessly.

So now we have metrosexual pajama boys who are too weak to make the hard decisions and execute upon them. This is the problem with liberals, feminists, public schools and Hollywood (as if there’s any difference between these things) emasculating men and boys.

There is going to be war. If 6000 years of history has taught us nothing, it should have taught us that. There are also going to be crimes so heinous that the death penalty is not only warranted, it’s a moral imperative.

Lethal force needs to be carried out quickly and decisively. By men. And woman like me will stand by and say, “Ehhh, whattya gonna do?” and then we’ll wash the men’s shirts when they get home and fix them a nice, hot dinner. This sounds like the natural order of things.
K-Bob
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:53 pm

Quarter should only be given when the other side lays down it’s arms. But sometimes even more drastic measures are called for.

Besides the frequently-referenced firebombing of places like Dresden, people forget that one of the final acts of WWII was the forced relocation of millions of ethnic Germans from surrounding countries, back to Germany. A huge number of deaths resulted from that action, alone.

But it ended the German desire to conquer their neighbors.

Forced relocations may be the only way to solve some problems.
Wombat_socho
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:57 pm

And you’re history! See how easy that was?
Wombat_socho
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:58 pm

I denounce you for left-deviationism and insufficient zeal in opposing the global domination plans of Google.
Wombat_socho
July 25th, 2014 @ 12:59 pm

Much less canonical.
Wombat_socho
July 25th, 2014 @ 1:01 pm

Stop the friendly fire already, or take the religious disputation somewhere else.
Wombat_socho
July 25th, 2014 @ 1:03 pm

I think this is in the wrong thread, but I’m still giving it an upvote.
SouthCentralPA
July 25th, 2014 @ 1:35 pm

Kozinski aptly illustrates the adage “One man’s indictment is another’s manifesto”…
YukonXl
July 25th, 2014 @ 1:41 pm

Yes, because only real men believe in capital punishment! and after they’re done with the killin’ the women folk will cook em up some eats!
Yukonxl
July 25th, 2014 @ 1:45 pm

Yes, letting the state kill people in archaic rituals is the true mark of adulthood! You couldn’t make this shit up if you tried. The death penalty hS no real use other than for public spectacle. That’s why in third world hell holes they drag the public out to witness it.
Sen. John Walsh Plagiarized His Homework | Regular Right Guy
July 25th, 2014 @ 2:08 pm

[…] ‘Splatter From an Execution’ […]
DeadMessenger
July 25th, 2014 @ 2:22 pm

Yep
ThomasD
July 25th, 2014 @ 2:59 pm

All they needed to do was add a paralytic agent (e.g. succinylcholine, or a longer acting alternative like atracurium) after the hydromorphone. By that time the criminal is completely unconscious, and will not be aware of anything that follows.

The paralytic stops all muscle activity and leads to rapid suffocation (4-5 minutes for complete brain death) while also preventing all the melodramatic labored breathing and appearance that he was in any way suffering.

He’ll just exhale once and cease to move, eventually turning pale then slightly blue around the lips and nail beds as his body’s oxygen supply is depleted. Then he’ll just look (and be) dead.
ThomasD
July 25th, 2014 @ 3:02 pm

Catholicism opposes all abortion, while capital punishment (like it’s corollary just war) is not expressly prohibited, merely strongly discouraged.
Colorado Alex
July 25th, 2014 @ 3:04 pm

I don’t find anything wrong with that.
My comment was a response to McCain’s last paragraph. A lot of people get upset at the idea of a “humane” execution. My point was merely that we demand a humane execution as a check against the worst impulses of society, not because all criminals are poor widdle victims being oppressed by the system. Demanding humane executions prevents us from going from “I don’t care if he suffers” to “Let’s make him suffer.”
ThomasD
July 25th, 2014 @ 3:15 pm

Wrong. Material participation in an abortion is a mortal sin. No such sin attaches to the participation in lawful killings such as self defense, execution, or in war.
TotallyPeeved
July 25th, 2014 @ 3:28 pm

A quick firing squad is the cheapest yet. Let’s do that. And not 20-30 years after the crime either.
ZZZZZZZZ
July 25th, 2014 @ 4:25 pm

zzzzzzzzz…….
Mike G.
July 25th, 2014 @ 5:06 pm

That’s why in third world hell holes they drag the public out to witness it.

It seems to work. The criminal gets his just desserts and the public sees what happens if you screw up and do something stupid and heinous enough to deserve the death penalty.

In the US, the only witnesses to an execution are a minister/pastor/rabbi, prison officials, one of whom is the Warden with phone in hand in case of a stay, the family members of the victim(s) effected if they so desire and the executioner. Not a very big audience and certainly not a public spectacle.
Adjoran
July 25th, 2014 @ 5:23 pm

Why is this being everywhere described as a “botched” execution?

He’s dead, isn’t he?

And he didn’t suffer, either, just took a long time to die.

The reason for this is the anti-capital punishment crowd and the EU has lobbied and bullied drug companies and wholesalers with the threats of lawsuits so the drugs known to work well and quickly are suddenly hard to come by. They did this deliberately to buttress their arguments against lethal injections.
Quartermaster
July 25th, 2014 @ 6:19 pm

That’s the deal we had since man got kicked out of the Garden. Wurx fer me.