States have been struggling with a shortage of lethal drugs to use in execution after companies refused to supply products for the purpose of killing the condemned. This has led one state to move back toward firing squads and electric chairs. Missouri however has moved to directly confront the industry ban on drug sales for execution by going into the business itself. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster proposed that the state “establish a state-operated, DEA-licensed laboratory to produce the execution chemicals in our state.” That would conceivably allow Missouri not only to supply its own execution drugs but to even supply other states.
What is equally interesting is that the state has been using a “compounding pharmacy” which has asked for its name to remain secret to avoid an industry or professional backlash. The state has a Sunshine Law enacted in 1973 (RSMO Chapter 610) that guarantees access to meetings, records, votes, actions, and deliberations of public governmental bodies are to be open to the public. However, it is not clear whether the public can demand access to contracts and other information that would be available under the Freedom of Information Act in the federal system. Presumably, this company is receiving state money and most such contracts are public. Embarrassment or fear of public backlash is not usually a basis to withhold such ordinarily public information.
Koster argues that, by creating its own lab, the state can be open about its source: itself. He told the legislature that it “should remove market-driven participants and pressures from the system at the earliest opportunity . . . Eliminating outside business interests from Missouri’s execution protocol would improve the high level of public transparency that is demanded in the exercise of this extraordinary state power.”
Source: Kansas City
Suicide is Painless:
Through early morning for I see
Visions of the things to be
The pains that are withheld for me
I realise that I can see
That suicide is painless
It brings so many changes
And I can take or leave them if I please
The game of life is hard to play
I’m gonna lose it anyway
The losing card of some delay
So this is all I have to say
That suicide is painless
It brings so many changes
And I can take or leave them if I please
The sword of time will pierce our skin
It doesn’t hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger watch I bring
That suicide is painless
It brings so many changes
And I can take or leave them if I please
A brave man once requested me
To answer questions that are key
Is it to be or not to be
And I replied oh why ask me
That suicide is painless
It brings so many changes
And I can take or leave them if I please.
As a rule you don’t get the death penalty for commiting one murder, most these people on death row committed more than one murders or a policeman or someone in public office or they had a terrible lawyer or didn’t listen to the plea bargain
Paul C. Schulte
Dredd – the number of death sentences has never been dependent on the amount of drug available. It has to do with the crime itself. If criminals would stop committing crimes that fall under the death penalty, we could lower the number on death row.
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Another incoherent response.
Typical.
Dredd – And I thought I could not have been more clear. 😀
I believe that every inmate should have the right to commit suicide. Provide a one shot deal that they self inject in front of the Chaplain after saying the confession thing. One shot of enough morphine to kill several humans. Play their favorite song and ….. Next!
barkindog – considering the number of inmates who commit suicide, I think they already have this right.
How about if they stood five death penality reciptents in front of a firing squad and only shot one and let the other four fear the thought of what they caused others to feel.
Bruce – this technique has been used before by various governments.
Will this be an incentive to increase the number of death penalty sentences?
Dredd – the number of death sentences has never been dependent on the amount of drug available. It has to do with the crime itself. If criminals would stop committing crimes that fall under the death penalty, we could lower the number on death row.
WHAT DO YOU SAY IN A SECRET MEETING?
By Lindsay Wise
McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton had lunch with President Barack Obama on Thursday in a stealthy visit that the White House only acknowledged after People Magazine tweeted about it.
The lunch wasn’t on the president’s public schedule. It became public knowledge after People tweeted a photo of one of its reporters who was with the former Secretary of State, then deleted the tweet. The tweet was posted again minutes later.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/29/4145740/hillary-clinton-meets-obama-for.html#storylink=cpy
Paul: I like the weeny words: “state sanctioned executions” and “justifiable homicide”. I think accuracy requires: People of “Texas kill human” and “poor excuse for murder of human.” But, it was decided long ago. By humans.
But, Paul I suppose that you are a non believer and can not worry about the interview with Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates. But, maybe you live in a state that does not kill humans. As to Limbo, there is a co worker here named Limbo Jill and she says that she is an existing thing and all her limbs are real and not artificial. She says the wing and a prayer thing does not cut it with her and she wants cash up front.
Al – my answer is the one that has been around for a thousand years or so.
Just for a twist. Let me inject (no pun intended) some religious dogma (no offense to dogs) here. Sixth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Now for those who believe in God, Christianity, and the Ten Commandments, then how do you reconcile the Sixth Commandment with the killing of humans by your state and by your state it is really The People of the Great State of _____ (fill in the blank and no pun intended on blank). ?
Think about it. If you live in Texas where you the people have killed a lot of humans, then you have some explaining to do when you get your interview at the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter is not going to be real understanding when you say: “oh well, we executed some convicts and we used lethal drugs and did not electrocute them or hang them.” Do you really want to go to Hell? Or to limbo which is a suburb of Saint Louis, MO called Florissant?
Al – this was decided long ago. State sanctioned executions are justifiable homicide. Justifiable homicide is not a sin or a crime. So, no going to hell. Limbo was an artificial construct which no longer exists, much like St. Christopher.
Sympathy is a virtue. Duty is mandatory. If a killer can kill without reason, the state must kill with it. Some people will reject even execution by “resurrection.” You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. There is no such thing as perfection. The best laid plans of mice and men… Capital punishment with automatic appeal is the best resolution for heinous crimes. Death is a part of life. Nobody gets out alive. Violent and brutal criminals must suffer a commensurate penalty. Quadruple redundancy (i.e. 3 or 4 nurses administering injections at 3 or 4 sites on the body) will assure proper and effective administration of drugs that hospitals use efficaciously on an hourly basis – patients never know that they suffer cuts, incisions and sutures in multiple areas. Kevorkian killed with good reason; reason good enough for even the deceased.
Another fine example of Profits over People…
Some crimes deserve death as a punishment, not many people would argue against that. But about whether the death penalty is an acceptable policy in a fallible criminal system, I can’t understand how people are for it. The law of large numbers guarantees that you will execute innocent people.