This undated file photo provided by the Arizona Department of Corrections shows inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood. (AP Photo/Arizona Department of Corrections, File)
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This undated file photo provided by the Arizona Department of Corrections shows inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood. (AP Photo/Arizona Department of Corrections, File)
TheBlaze posted a story earlier this week about a lawyer saying his client remained alive and gasping for nearly two hours during an execution in Arizona.
The lawyer's client, Joseph Wood, was sentenced to death after being convicted of the 1989 shooting deaths of his estranged girlfriend and her father.
Wood's lawyer claimed theexecution violated his “Eighth Amendment right to be executed in the absence of cruel and unusual punishment.”
Here's what some readers of TheBlaze had to say about the issue:
SLEAZYHIPPOs ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRINGWho decides what’s cruel or unusual? Personally I don’t think what he experienced was cruel or unusual given his past violent and premeditated actions. So the 8th amendment is a moot point.
“what does it matter now?” ; ) As a veterinarian who has to euthanize patients on a regular basis, what this document describes is 1) Normal in sedated individuals and 2) definitely not “cruel” punishment. I do however have to say these state-run executions certainly are not done nearly as quickly and peacefully as we do euthanizations in our office. I don’t know what/where the problem is, but there’s definitely better ways to do this. I believe the feds inquired with the AVMA about consulting but because of the political hot potato the issue would be, the AVMA declined to help the government work with bettering their method of execution. All it would take is one federal employee to take a vet out for coffee and I’m sure we’d be able to shed some light on how to make these procedures more “palatable” for the libs/dims/socialists who refuse to understand the necessity of this punishment.
The only reason that this and other lethal injections have taken any length of time is that the IV needle slipped out of the vein and the drugs were delivered into the tissue instead of directly into the bloodstream.
Why these IVs are infiltrating I don’t know? It could be the person inserting the IV is inexperienced or it could be poor quality veins if the criminal has a history of IV drug abuse.
Gasping for breath or grunting is part of the death process; it doesn’t mean the individual is suffering.
This murderer died far more humanely than did either of his victims.
The problem here is these executions are being performed in a manner meant to appease the sensibilities of the viewing audience and not the criminal. If the goal of the execution is a quick, sure, and painless death, then one must instantaneously destroy the brain and heart. If your brain is destroyed you have no consciousness or perception of pain.
Simply bring back the firing squad. A dozen .308 rifles. Six aimed at the head, and six aimed at the heart. Death is absolutely certain, instantaneous, and painless for the criminal. The blood and gore of a head and chest exploding will also assure any onlookers that the man/woman is executed and utterly dead. There will be no doubters, and the mechanical simplicity of it will ensure little chance of mistakes, or Murphy’s Law inserting itself into the situation. It will also be a whole lot cheaper.
Surely makes you wonder if his estranged girlfriend and her father gasped for nearly 2 hours before they died.What about their rights?? Something is seriously wrong with this society. We could go back to hanging them. It's a lot quicker. That this has happened more than once and just recently sounds like a bad batch of one of the drugs they are using!
There is no reason for the state to resort to sadism in our name. We should return to hanging and shooting as the preferred methods of execution. It may not be pretty to watch, but it's quick, and that's what really matters.
Like the family member said, why didn’t we just use “ONE bullet” to the head, which is 100% fatal 100% of the time if done properly. Cheap, efficient, safe (well, except for the murderous cretin who felt it necessary to kill two innocent human beings). Pray for common sense.
Hum… I wonder if his estranged girlfriend and father were executed with the “absence of cruel and unusual punishment?”
It’s supposed to be a punishment; it shouldn’t feel good. I don’t see what the problem is.
If you can put a dog to sleep in five seconds, then why not a human? They are doing this on purpose to get rid of the death penalty.
If the death penalty were more gruesome it just might actually be more of a deterrent. Right now it’s just fall asleep and you die, unaware of anything. It needs to be more disturbing so people will think twice about taking the life of another.
He continued to breathe for 25 years after being convicted of brutally murdering two people. That is the problem.
I wonder if he thought that this might happen as he was killing. How long did the people he killed have to suffer ? How long do the families have to suffer ? He got what he dished out.
You know how you can avoid being sentenced to death? Oh, I don’t know…maybe…NOT FREAKING MURDERING PEOPLE?!?!?!
You have no respect for others’ lives and consider killing them, cool. Now you have a consequence to pay, and that’s with your own life. I have no sympathy for him gasping for breath for two hours after he took the lives of at least two others. In fact, he should have suffered longer.
The idea that keeping someone in prison for decades is cheaper than executing them quickly is the truly barbaric thing. A murderer is allowed to make appeals for years and years even though they received their fair trial and were proven guilty by a jury of their peers with sufficient evidence for the crime of murdering others. If not, then they do not deserve execution by death. In this sorry excuse for a man’s case, he deserved it. Good riddance. One less person receiving health care, meals, protection, etc. on OUR money for their disgusting act for the rest of his life. Much of which he received much better than I and other Americans can ever afford on what they earn, if I may add…
On with your lives, everyone! Let’s put to use the money we would’ve wasted on his time in prison to good use on our children’s educations, making our roads better, or any other much more worthwhile project we can support. No use crying over some pathetic loser who got what he dished out.
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