Florida to execute inmate using unproven drug

Florida to execute inmate using unproven drug

The state of Florida will this morning execute its first death row inmate in nearly two years, using a lethal injection drug that has not yet been used in the United States.

The execution of Mark Asay is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. local time (8am AEST) and has caused uproar from human rights groups and even the drug's creator.

The 53-year-old white inmate was sentenced to death in 1988 in the racially motivated double murder a year earlier of a black man, Robert Lee Booker and Robert McDowell in Jacksonville, Florida, who has been identified as white and Hispanic.

Asay fatally shot Booker, an African American, after making racist remarks, according to prosecutors.

He killed his other victim, McDowell, who was apparently dressed as a woman, after making a deal to pay him for sex.

Why the execution has the state divided

Etomidate is the first of three drugs administered in Florida's new execution cocktail. It is replacing midazolam, which has been harder to acquire after many drug companies began refusing to provide it for executions.

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http://www.9news.com.au/world/2017/...ing-unproven-drug-mark-asay?ocid=Social-9News

i never understood the argument that the old combo of midazolam and hydromorphone causes pain and suffering during executions, when the medical use of the drugs is to eliminate pain and suffering.

Midazolam was a replacement for pentobarbital, I believe.

Some of the problem I think, is that doctors refuse to write a protocol, considering these drugs were meant to eliminate pain and suffering while keeping the patient alive.

But really, if folks are so happy about executing people, firing squads and hanging can be painless when done right, I don't know why they want to dress up the procedure. You ask for blood and shit, you should see blood and shit.

I'm anti death penalty but if it was me being executed I would want a massive fentanyl overdose. Maybe mix it with a barbiturate just for certainty. It's the other drugs besides the anesthetic that causes the horrible pain.

I'd prefer an OD oxymorphone and an OD of something like Seconal because I'm sure the drug that stops your heart is painful. Florida has been using Old Sparky probably since Edisons time. BTW, they are trying to suppress and water down the voters decision on the medicinal cannabis law here. It was such a drag driving back from Colorado to here and entering ideology and dogma land again.

Shoot why not bring back the guillotine. You know we really haven't changed that much since the Roman empire where the fun for the day was watching people die.

Assisted suicides and pets get a single shot of a barbiturate. Prisoners get only enough to anesthetize.

But the state also gives you vancuronium, or one in that family, so you don't do any nasty spasming that might disturb the viewers and remind them a person is dying, and means you're paralyzed in agony if they screw up the first shot.

Then some potassium chloride to stop the heart. That's the stuff that's supposed to burn. When I got it IV in the hospital, it was spiked with lidocaine, so it wouldn't burn at the concentration I got. Which was a whole lot lower than the executed get.

But the KCl is like a double-death if they did the anesthesia right. It's all part of this weird act they put on, pretending they're doing some medical procedure rather than putting a human down; it's needlessly complex. They could do a single shot of barbs too, and not worry about suffering. Someone probably didn't like the "optics" of using the same protocol you'd use on your dog.

Scrofula said:

Assisted suicides and pets get a single shot of a barbiturate. Prisoners get only enough to anesthetize.

But the state also gives you vancuronium, or one in that family, so you don't do any nasty spasming that might disturb the viewers and remind them a person is dying, and means you're paralyzed in agony if they screw up the first shot.

Then some potassium chloride to stop the heart. That's the stuff that's supposed to burn. When I got it IV in the hospital, it was spiked with lidocaine, so it wouldn't burn at the concentration I got. Which was a whole lot lower than the executed get.

But the KCl is like a double-death if they did the anesthesia right. It's all part of this weird act they put on, pretending they're doing some medical procedure rather than putting a human down; it's needlessly complex. They could do a single shot of barbs too, and not worry about suffering. Someone probably didn't like the "optics" of using the same protocol you'd use on your dog.

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Last time I cried really hard was when I had to put my beloved doxie down in 2013. The vet said he could live with meds but would need help with going to the bathroom (and probably wheels for his hind legs) The vet didn't try to influence us, at least I didn't perceive that, but it was time in our minds to let him go. The vet explained what would happen. He said Snoopy would peacefully go to sleep, feel no pain and they would stop his heart. They ran an IV and gave him the first drug. He just started snoring so peacefully. He was in our arms the whole time. I gotta go. This is too painful. Sorry.

I don't believe grieving for the dead for too long is healthy. They already gone where ever they're going after too long unless they get stuck.

Please try not to be to hard on yourself though FLA, grieving is a very individual process - there isn't a right or wrong way to grieve. And just because they wasn't a biological member of your family or a member of our species, they were nonetheless an important member of your family. A loved one. Even four, five years later, there is absolutely nothing wrong than feeling otherwise known as sorrow. Given your love, I imagine it is a feeling both terrible and beautiful.

Scrofula said:

But the state also gives you vancuronium, or one in that family, so you don't do any nasty spasming that might disturb the viewers and remind them a person is dying, and means you're paralyzed in agony if they screw up the first shot.

Then some potassium chloride to stop the heart. That's the stuff that's supposed to burn. When I got it IV in the hospital, it was spiked with lidocaine, so it wouldn't burn at the concentration I got. Which was a whole lot lower than the executed get.

But the KCl is like a double-death if they did the anesthesia right. It's all part of this weird act they put on, pretending they're doing some medical procedure rather than putting a human down; it's needlessly complex. They could do a single shot of barbs too, and not worry about suffering. Someone probably didn't like the "optics" of using the same protocol you'd use on your dog.

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It sounds pretty cruel to me, regardless if they are criminals.

toothpastedog said:

Please try not to be to hard on yourself though FLA, grieving is a very individual process - there isn't a right or wrong way to grieve. And just because they wasn't a biological member of your family or a member of our species, they were nonetheless an important member of your family. A loved one. Even four, five years later, there is absolutely nothing wrong than feeling otherwise known as sorrow. Given your love, I imagine it is a feeling both terrible and beautiful.

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Thanks. Terrible and beautiful just about says it all.

@FLA, I have lost a dog after being with him a bit more than 18 years. It can be painfully sad. That sort of sadness you need to ask for sick leave because you can't work on the next day as if everything was normal.

They are family and we don't want to forget them, there's no way another dog can replace these feelings. It's impossible not to feel it. I remember my own father telling me that he couldn't picture me being that sad if it had happened to him. Everyone in my family was grieving, the house was so silent. I am sorry you are going through this right now.

When the Ex had my cat euthanized (I knew she was preparing the same for me, metaphorically) I didnt see it, because I got blind drunk and passed out before the vet could get to the house.

Except I still feel really guilty for not being there for the cat. It's all very symbolic of that period of my life, and my way of coping with things.

Erikmen said:

@FLA, I have lost a dog after being with him a bit more than 18 years. It can be painfully sad. That sort of sadness you need to ask for sick leave because you can't work on the next day as if everything was normal.

They are family and we don't want to forget them, there's no way another dog can replace these feelings. It's impossible not to feel it. I remember my own father telling me that he couldn't picture me being that sad if it had happened to him. Everyone in my family was grieving, the house was so silent. I am sorry you are going through this right now.

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That was in 2013, but thanks. We still have his paw prints. His leash with his tag still hangs on the wall. He was suffering for a long time with high cortisol levels for a while before we had to put him down. It didn't seem like the specialist vet could help him at all with that. Every time I took him to her I felt like Snoopy thought I was taking him to his death. I remember my AA sponsor at the time saying you are keeping him alive for selfish purposes which caused me to think about that. We made the mistake of getting two brothers (my avatar) shortly after. They do so much better having each other to play with. My one wish is I pass away before they do. I tend to not do to well living in the present and am always anticipating things like I can't bear to see them get old and feeble. At this point in time they are so happy though. They can't bear to be separated from us so we took them on our recent road trip to CO. We did occasionally take them to doggy day care to socialize but that place had some recent deaths due to the owner trying to maximize profits at the expense of training their employees about things like heat stroke.

I'm a Democrat but pro death penalty...if there is sufficient evidence.

Never understood how conservatives are pro DP but won't let you dispose of an undifferentiated unconscious ball of cells. But not much is based in logic with regard to thier policy

IMO if they are going to do it, it should be the the absolutely, undoubtedly proven worst of the very worst. Fritzl-type monsters. And none of that long walk to a death chamber. SWAT team burst into the cell and fill the bastards with long-barreled shotgun solid slug shot and hollowpoint rounds from something like a mac-10 or MP5 submachinegun before they have time to know its even going on. Its messy but at least quick, and having the brain blown to pieces by a burst of hollowpoint/SSG/slug fire is going to minimize or eliminate capacity to feel pain. That or gas them in their sleep with some high-potency opioid derivative and a couple of 00-buckshot rounds to the head from point blank range whilst unconscious. Never know what happened. But IF capital punishment is to be performed at all its got to be reserved for the real sick fucks that have no chance whatsoever at ever becoming a safe member of society. Perhaps have them volunteer or not, vs life inside. For some, it may be kinder.

Cause bad people must be punished--how else can we tell who the bad people are?
But a blastocyst is like a twinkle in Jesus' eye, just oh so innocent and precious and the perfect wedge to get the evangelical vote.

For me it's about limits on the state's power. It can take your property, children, freedom, conscript you into the military, and it can take your life in this country. The same apparatus that works the DMV can decide you should be killed.

Also that there's just no good argument FOR it. A dozen reasons against, but there's not a single reason to keep it.
Keeping in mind that being opposed to a death penalty does not mean I don't think certain fuckers should fry.

A single round of 30-06 is less than a dollar. In the hands of a skilled marksman that would be all it takes to execute a prisoner...I'd rather be shot in the base of my skull with a high powered round then pumped full of drugs by ppl that seem to not know how to give injections. (Remember the one where the needle was pointing down his arm and not up to his head?)
Plus these are drugs that can have all types of different reactions, a bullet usually always has the same result.

'medicine cabinet' said:

A single round of 30-06 is less than a dollar.

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Rope might be cheaper, or stairs to the top of the building. In California plastic bags cost a dime.

Of course it saves money to drop the whole farce an leave them in a cage forever.