Jan Brewer: Inmate In Botched Execution 'Did Not Suffer'

[DonViejo]

Source: TPM

By CATHERINE THOMPSON Published JULY 24, 2014, 8:59 AM EDT

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) said Wednesday that she had ordered an internal review of the nearly two-hour-long execution of an inmate, but she said she believed the condemned man who gasped and snorted throughout most of the ordeal "did not suffer."

Lawyers for Joseph Rudolph Wood said the inmate gasped for more than an hour and a half during his execution before he died. One defense lawyer called it "a botched execution that should have taken 10 minutes," according to the Associated Press.

Yet Brewer released a statement saying that Wood was executed in a lawful manner and "by eyewitness and medical accounts he did not suffer."

"This is in stark comparison to the gruesome, vicious suffering that he inflicted on his two victims, and the lifetime of suffering he has caused their family," she added.

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jan-brewer-joseph-wood-didnt-suffer

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Arizona AG's Office Got Inmate's Name Wrong In Announcing Botched Execution

By NICK R. MARTIN Published JULY 23, 2014, 9:07 PM EDT

A short time after Arizona inmate Joseph R. Wood III was executed on Wednesday in what reportedly was a gruesome two-hour ordeal, the state attorney general's office there sent out an email announcing the death.

There was a problem with the announcement, though: It had Wood's name wrong. News outlets, including TPM, received the announcement at 3:56 p.m. Arizona time, just seven minutes after Wood was pronounced dead. The first paragraph of the announcement was this:

PHOENIX, AZ (Wednesday, July 23, 2014) – After several days of legal maneuvering, Attorney General Tom Horne is announcing the execution of 55-year-old, Robert G. Jones, ADC #086279. The execution commenced at 1:52 p.m. at the Arizona State Prison Complex (ASPC)-Florence. He was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m.

The name that appeared in that paragraph, Robert G. Jones, was that of an inmate who was put to death by Arizona on Oct. 23, 2013.

more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/joseph-wood-execution-wrong-name

[Randomthought]

1. She knows this how?

She will say anything

[liberalmike27]

13. I know this one

This is what my mother used to use, the "Because I say so," method.

[GeorgeGist]

17. She got her MD from the University of Phoenix.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

19. Exactly my response when I read the headline.

[1StrongBlackMan]

24. Because EVERYBODY KNOWS ...

snorting and gasping for breath is, clearly, the sign of bodily comfort!

[lsewpershad]

29. She knows because

she would love to die like that.... sleeping and poisoned.

[SummerSnow]

42. She looks dead already , so she knows

[Paladin]

2. Did anybody expect Brewer to be even minimally upset by this incident?

I sure as hell didn't......

[marble falls]

3. They couldn't get his name right but they know he didn't suffer. There's something terribly wrong..

with Arizona.

[albino65]

4. Try it on her so she can have first-hand knowledge n/t

[bullwinkle428]

5. Medical degree from a Cracker Jack box.

[blackspade]

6. A bold statement from a pathological liar.

What a POS.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. You know, Dr. Brewer, I'd much rather be shot dead than suffocate.

[Trillo]

8. Same thing doctors tell kids when giving them a painful shot.

"This isn't going to hurt at all."

It's a patterned method humans have of routine lying to each other.

[sorefeet]

9. Brewer, you are so ignorant

How in the fuck could you possibly know he did not suffer???????????? I am so sick of the right wing comments that they think are facts. You don't have a fucking clue of what kind of suffering this man went through and neither does anyone else, so how in the fuck could you make such a stupid statement?? Regardless, it is certainly cruel, barbaric, inhumane making you no better than the person you executed. End the death penalty now.

[Shoonra]

10. If this guy didn't suffer ....

If this guy didn't suffer then he was the only person in Arizona who didn't.

This may be one of the few executions (at least in the last few decades) where the witnesses suffered worse than the condemned. He may have been sedated but that's not quite the same as saying he was utterly unaware of his bodily distress. While I was sedated for my heart surgery I had hideous dreams in which I was being beaten with bullwhips.

Arizona fought (ultimately successfully) in court to prevent their drugs and the qualifications of their "medical" crew from being revealed. Then, afterward, the Medical Examiner refused to comply with a court order to take blood and tissue samples for expert analysis. By this morning, believe me, a lot has changed on the death penalty landscape, especially for Arizona.

In other states, over the past decade, there were discovered that, among others, prisoners got totally inadequate sedation so they were paralyzed but aware they were being suffocated, the 'doctor' was unlicensed and had been much sued for malpractice, the chemicals had been mixed without any notion of their proper measurements, the 'medical crew' knew nothing about inserting the needles and did it wrong and/or had to jab the prisoner many times trying to find the proper spot, etc. Death by injection turned out to be Less Humane that the methods it replaced.

In the meantime, DNA and other forensic advances have cleared a bunch of people who were previously sentenced to death. So it may happen that this country will rethink the notion of death penalties altogether.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

28. The family didn't want justice, they wanted vengeance.

The statements they made showed them embracing the notion that he deserved as much suffering as possible.

[muntrv]

11. Fine Jan! You go through the same thing this inmate went through!

[candelista]

12. She wouldn't suffer.

Her servo-mechanisms and RAM chips don't have nerve endings.

[davidpdx]

44. +1

[RoBear]

14. How does she breathe

with her head so far up her ass????

[riderinthestorm]

15. This reminds me of Dr. Frist and Terry Schiavo.

When did Jan Brewer get her medical degree and why does she feel she, or anyone else medical professional or not, have any way to stipulate that with any degree of certainty.

[samsingh]

16. i agree with jan on this on - i don't care if this murderer suffered

[Swede Atlanta]

20. What a sick post...

First, of all we convict the wrong people, including alleged murderers, all the time. That is because we live in a violent society that I suggest has social origins - access to guns, violence in entertainment, the war on drugs, poverty, gangs, etc. So with pressure to get convictions there is pressure on police and prosecutors to "get their man". Scores of inmates have been exonerated using DNA evidence over the past 10-15 years.

You probably believe with Justice Scalia who said that the fact the person was convicted based on faulty evidence is no reason not to execute them as long as they had a "fair" trial. I think most Republicans would agree with that. It doesn't matter if the person is, in fact, innocent....as long as they got a fair trial according to our criminal procedure they should fry.

Second, as opposed to the so-called Xtians that believe in the sanctity of life, I actually do. I do not want any person to suffer in my name. I don't want the state killing in my name either. I don't care what the inmate did or perhaps didn't even do. I do not want torture/suffering or death being committed in my name.

[samsingh]

37. if it's an innocent person i am beyond horrified

I have no sympathy for serial killers - I respect the victims too much

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

30. Yes, we've noticed that same attitude in your I/P posts.

Vengeance is supposed to be up to God, not man.

[NickB79]

36. Then that puts you on the same moral level as the GOP

Let that sink in for a minute.

[samsingh]

38. i don't think so - i respect the victims

[neverforget]

41. wow.

[George II]

18. As long as she's governor, ALL people in Arizona suffer.

[LannyDeVaney]

21. It seems the constitutional bar has been moved in this country ...

cruel and unusual punishment is OK now as long as it isn't worse than the original crime.

Because this is what our country has become. Torturers, murderers, rapists and "Christians".

[jmowreader]

27. It says cruel AND unusual

Torturing people to death in this country has become all too usual.

[QuestForSense]

22. I would have thought better of her had she not added that last bit.

THAT is what I would call throwing a piece of meat to the wolves (her base). Why people believe someone being put to death should suffer more makes them as heartless as the murderer.

[Blue Idaho]

23. Name One

Other form of execution used in the United States that takes two hours...

Yeah - I didn't think so...

[Atman]

26. Watching "Gigli?"

[Blue Idaho]

34. :-) thanks for that! nt.

[blkmusclmachine]

25. Lying liars lie.

[elleng]

31. Right, and 'we don't torture.'

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

32. I wonder if all those beheadings in the Arizona desert hurt

"Oh, our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded," she said." Only she would know.

[Historic NY]

33. Maybe they should call a Vet....because they wouldn't let an animal suffer.

2 hours.

[riderinthestorm]

40. The drug manufacturers won't sell the drugs used in pet euthanasia for human executions

They've figured out its bad shit to have your product associated as the death drug for humans...

So the states are experimenting with different drug cocktails that are secret.

There are court cases pending where prisoners who are sentenced to die have petitioned to learn what drugs will be used and right now the courts are ruling that the state can keep the drug cocktail a secret.

[JimDandy]

45. This botched execution is exactly the reason

that the drugs these states use to murder their murders should not be secret. Death row inmates have a right to know the exact method that will be used to execute them. Surely it must be illegal for the government to conduct such experiments on human beings, even murders.

This inmate was one of those who petitioned the state for the drug names. Ironically, the very thing happened that he, his attorney and many others in the nation didn't want: another botched execution. He ended up suffering terribly from the drugs they used. The alternative, that this inmates suffering was deliberate and not botched, is horrifying.

[oldandhappy]

35. You can email her thru her web page.

I am horrified by her comment and I said that. No long message needed.

[hamsterjill]

39. Politicians that say too much.

I'm always astounded when a politician, who should know better, says too much.

Brewer could have simply stated that there was going to be an internal review of the execution, and left it at that. The fact that she has to insert her PERSONAL opinion (which is all that it is because she has no medical credentials) into her statement makes me believe she's trying to convince herself that the man didn't suffer. To ease her own conscience for being a part of the process.

[DonViejo]

43. Well...

She admitted to a whole lot with her statement...

Yet Brewer released a statement saying that Wood was executed in a lawful manner and "by eyewitness and medical accounts he did not suffer."

"This is in stark comparison to the gruesome, vicious suffering that he inflicted on his two victims, and the lifetime of suffering he has caused their family," she added.

It's all about revenge

[truthisfreedom]

46. Jan, meet John.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/john-mccain-arizona-execution-109350.html

[Manifestor_of_Light]

47. So where did Gov. Cryptkeeper get her medical degree????

[In_The_Wind]

48. Total BS!