Death Penalty
Lawsuit Spurs Washington’s Lethal Injection Team to Quit
Posted Apr 3, 2009 9:57 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The state of Washington is without a team to administer lethal injections after all four of its members resigned in response to a lawsuit.
The four volunteers, all who currently or previously worked for the Department of Corrections, apparently fear their names will become public as a result of a lawsuit challenging lethal injections in the state, the Seattle Times reports.
The suit asks a judge to privately review the qualifications and experience of those who would administer lethal injections, the story says. The suit claims lethal injections can cause severe pain if they are not done correctly.
Scott Englehard, a lawyer representing one of the inmates challenging the procedure, said the team members’ identities would not have been disclosed during the in camera review. But Dan Sytman, a spokesman for State Attorney General Rob McKenna, said volunteers were worried their records would eventually be disclosed.
"They don't want picketers showing up on their front lawns, and they don't want offenders knowing who they are," Sytman told the Seattle Times.
Hat tip to Criminal Justice Journalists.
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Comments
Aaron Buchanan
Apr 3, 2009 11:20 AM CST
Why should’nt they be named and shamed. Every other murderer is named and shamed and thats just what they are doing. ‘LEGAL MURDER” What absoloute bullshit.
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Chris
Apr 4, 2009 8:01 AM CST
If it’s legal, by definition, it’s not murder.
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A reader
Apr 4, 2009 8:08 AM CST
Aaron Buchanan - you answered your own question. They shouldn’t be “named and shamed” because what they are doing is LEGAL. Whether or not you believe capital punishment is right and proper, and whether or not you believe it is ok to murder murderers, it is LEGAL. They should not be named because to do so would put their lives in danger from whackos who would rather seek vigilante justice against a system they feel is wrong (like those opposed to “the murder of babies” who would turn around an abortion doctor) instead of going through the channels to get the legislation changed to make capital punishment ILLEGAL.
All that, and not to mention possible retaliation from the families of the murderers who were “murdered” by lethal injection.
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A reader
Apr 4, 2009 8:09 AM CST
“who would turn around an murder an abortion doctor” is what I meant to say. Sorry.
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B. McLeod
Apr 4, 2009 8:41 PM CST
I have heard that the Chinese use a single bullet, fired point blank at the base of the prisoner’s skull. Instantaneous, and the condemned person has no time to feel anything. The death penalty regime in this country has been so overcomplicated by the effort to make it look like some kind of a medical procedure, that has become part of the problem.
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