Ohio ACLU Sues To Make Entire Execution Public

[Judi Lynn]

Ohio ACLU Sues To Make Entire Execution Public
Offenders Taken Into Room With Needles In Place

UPDATED: 6:19 a.m. EDT September 26, 2003

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Executions in Ohio should be public from beginning to end, including the insertion of intravenous needles in condemned inmates' arms, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday.

The ACLU's Ohio chapter said it is suing in federal court to force prison officials to let witnesses see the entire execution. A lawsuit was to be filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Columbus, said Raymond Vasvari, the ACLU Ohio's legal director.

Prison officials currently bring death row offenders into the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville with IV needles already in place.

Vasvari said the state is trying to conceal the true nature of executions. He said the insertion of IVs can be a long, painful process.

"What they've done is taken the process of judicially taking a man's life and reduced it to a minor surgical procedure," he said. (snip/...)


http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2512889/detail.html

[JCMach1]

1. Go one step further-- live T.V.

I don't think the argument against Captital punishment will reach critical mass without.

Why should what is being done in our name be hidden behind closed doors?

[maxanne]

4. what worries me

is that the Jerry Springer sort of mentality will take over, and people will turn executions into festive events, complete with bookmaking. Plenty of betting potential: how long, how many convulsions, death rattles, etc.

I wish I thought people would be genuinely revolted and horrified by an execution. People aren't genuinely horrified by homeless children, so why would the dead and dying make a dent in our ever less compassionate society?

[AP]

6. And only then will people realize how sick it is.

The UK had the death penalty and got rid of it. I think there were two things about the British legal system which aren't present in the US system which make a huge difference in the debate.

The first is that many executions in the UK were in public. You can only really be disgusted by an execution if you witness it. The other is that judges sentence the convicted in the UK. In the US you have a jury of 9, and any one jury member does not feel totally responsible for his or her choice. There's a perception that the judge will correct the sentence if it's wrong, and if the judge doesn't, then a majority of some appeals court down the road will correct your error, and if not that, then a governor or the president will grant clemency.

In the UK, I believe, judges felt highly culpable and became sickened by having to make life and death decisions while knowing full well the failings of the system in which defendants were being convicted.

The more detached people feel from the process, whether they're jury members, or citizens from whom the execution process is something hidded away, the less likely society will feel morally compelled to speak out against it.

[Mari333]

2. Like thats going to happen

The US public has their heads buried in the sand ...they dont want to see dead soldiers, dead Iraqi civilians, and they certainly dont want to see death in general..
They prefer the Video Game version of reality, where they can sit in their comfy chairs and watch fluffy news with Rove-inspired sound bytes touting the war as Drumbeating music and silly banners like "Operation Iraqi Freedom" are pummeled into their heads on right wing news....

[Francis]

3. That's a broad brush

We are a diverse people, whatever your nationality I dislike the way you have managed to group us all together as "They"

[Mari333]

5. well when I see real footage of dead soldiers being brought home

in body bags, dead Iraqi civilians, and REAL news about this invasion being shown, and the US public fly into an outrage and Bush's poll numbers plunge to 10 %, then I wont think the US public is in denial.
and I live in Michigan.