Oklahoma set to execute terminally ill inmate with 6 months to live
SuzannePjam
Posts: 411
What do you think? By his own confession he admitted to killing his employer, so I don't see why he should die of natural causes. He didn't give two other human beings that chance.
Terminally Ill Man on Verge of Execution
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TIM TALLEY | June 25, 2007 08:58 PM EST |
OKLAHOMA CITY — A death row inmate with terminal cancer was down to his final appeal Monday, the day before his execution, after a judge dismissed his claim that the state's lethal injection method unconstitutionally causes excruciating pain.
Death penalty opponents who question the need to execute someone who has as little as six months to live anyway have rallied around Jimmy Dale Bland, a two-time killer who shot his 62-year-old employer in the back of the head 11 years ago.
"It won't take much to kill him. He's half dead now," said Bud Welch of Oklahoma City, a board member of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty whose daughter was killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the Washington-based coalition, said the case raises ethical issues.
"It is pointless. The fact that this is moving forward and it is so shocking is really why the public is coming to see that there is something terribly wrong with the system," Rust-Tierney said.
Prosecutors have said Bland's medical condition is not grounds for clemency, and the victim's relatives also have said he does not deserve to die of natural causes.
Bland, 49, has been administered radiation and chemotherapy for advanced lung cancer that has spread to his brain and his hip bone, according to his attorney, David Autry.
Bland's execution could turn into a catastrophe if the veins in his arms where a lethal dose of chemicals will be injected have been compromised by his chemotherapy treatments, Autry said.
Autry has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Bland's execution and decide whether executing a terminally ill inmate violates the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot denied a stay Monday based on a similar argument.
The high court has not acted on the request, commonly made at this stage by condemned inmates. Autry said it was the last chance of stopping Bland's execution, set for Tuesday evening.
The five-member Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously rejected Bland's request for clemency June 12.
On Friday, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals voted 3-2 to deny a stay, with the majority writing that prohibiting the execution of a terminally ill person "would mean the death sentence could not be carried out before the natural expiration of a person's life."
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Charles Chapel of Tulsa said a stay should be granted to protect "the dignity of society itself from the barbarity of exacting mindless vengeance."
"Bland's life is very near its natural end. It is cruel, unusual, inappropriate and totally unnecessary to intervene at this time, just to ensure that his demise is at the hands of the state," Chapel wrote.
Bland was sentenced to death for the Nov. 14, 1996, murder of Doyle Windle Rains, who was shot in the back of the head in his garage with a .22-caliber rifle.
Bland was driving a vehicle owned by Rains when he was arrested for driving under the influence two days later. Bland, who did construction and handyman work for Rains, confessed to killing Rains and hiding his body.
Bland also spent 20 years of a 60-year sentence in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping charges in 1975. He had been out of prison less than a year when he was accused of killing Rains.
Terminally Ill Man on Verge of Execution
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TIM TALLEY | June 25, 2007 08:58 PM EST |
OKLAHOMA CITY — A death row inmate with terminal cancer was down to his final appeal Monday, the day before his execution, after a judge dismissed his claim that the state's lethal injection method unconstitutionally causes excruciating pain.
Death penalty opponents who question the need to execute someone who has as little as six months to live anyway have rallied around Jimmy Dale Bland, a two-time killer who shot his 62-year-old employer in the back of the head 11 years ago.
"It won't take much to kill him. He's half dead now," said Bud Welch of Oklahoma City, a board member of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty whose daughter was killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the Washington-based coalition, said the case raises ethical issues.
"It is pointless. The fact that this is moving forward and it is so shocking is really why the public is coming to see that there is something terribly wrong with the system," Rust-Tierney said.
Prosecutors have said Bland's medical condition is not grounds for clemency, and the victim's relatives also have said he does not deserve to die of natural causes.
Bland, 49, has been administered radiation and chemotherapy for advanced lung cancer that has spread to his brain and his hip bone, according to his attorney, David Autry.
Bland's execution could turn into a catastrophe if the veins in his arms where a lethal dose of chemicals will be injected have been compromised by his chemotherapy treatments, Autry said.
Autry has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block Bland's execution and decide whether executing a terminally ill inmate violates the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Stephen P. Friot denied a stay Monday based on a similar argument.
The high court has not acted on the request, commonly made at this stage by condemned inmates. Autry said it was the last chance of stopping Bland's execution, set for Tuesday evening.
The five-member Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously rejected Bland's request for clemency June 12.
On Friday, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals voted 3-2 to deny a stay, with the majority writing that prohibiting the execution of a terminally ill person "would mean the death sentence could not be carried out before the natural expiration of a person's life."
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Charles Chapel of Tulsa said a stay should be granted to protect "the dignity of society itself from the barbarity of exacting mindless vengeance."
"Bland's life is very near its natural end. It is cruel, unusual, inappropriate and totally unnecessary to intervene at this time, just to ensure that his demise is at the hands of the state," Chapel wrote.
Bland was sentenced to death for the Nov. 14, 1996, murder of Doyle Windle Rains, who was shot in the back of the head in his garage with a .22-caliber rifle.
Bland was driving a vehicle owned by Rains when he was arrested for driving under the influence two days later. Bland, who did construction and handyman work for Rains, confessed to killing Rains and hiding his body.
Bland also spent 20 years of a 60-year sentence in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping charges in 1975. He had been out of prison less than a year when he was accused of killing Rains.
"Where there is sacrifice there is someone collecting the sacrificial offerings."-- Ayn Rand
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
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Not that I would support the death penalty anyway. He's dying now, let him die of natural causes. Terminal cancer is no pleasant way to die.
Patients dying of terminal illnesses aren't given the option to end their suffering early.
If his illness is going to take him out fairly soon, then what is the point of interferring with that?
*~You're IT Bert!~*
Hold on to the thread
The currents will shift
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=272825
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
I say off this guy. Shoot him in the back of the head the way he shot his boss.
"Death penalty opponents who question the need to execute someone who has as little as six months to live anyway have rallied around Jimmy Dale Bland, a two-time killer who shot his 62-year-old employer in the back of the head 11 years ago" = Thats fucked up.
that's the point of capital punishment, it's to ensure his demise is at the hand of the state. IMO, his specific medical condition should have no bearing on the punishment.
What gives us the right or power to pass judgemnt or end the life of another, regardless of how heinous the crime? There is no justification for capital punishment.....life is sacred
Till there aint nothing left worth taking away from me.....
Or I suppose they could just let him rot in a room somewhere in agony...until he gives up the will to live...festering in piles of his own waste and vomit which would not be allowed in any gov't operated facility.. I think execution would cost less.
kinda sad reality I just typed that...
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
Exactly. He should neither be treated nor executed. And no hospice worker holding his hand at the end, either.
Surely you have heard that capital punishment is a deterrent more than anything else!
I don't see how, if they've kept him alive on death row for 10 years that people could suddenly be concerned about the economics of what is a cheaper way for him to die.
I don't think that he deserves to live given what he has done but I don't see how killing him is going to bring back the people that he murdered or give any relief to the victims families. HE is the murderer, others should be above that act. And retribution is not going to make it better. The only thing it will change is us for allowing ourselves the act of vengeance.
He's dying. Let him die. And even if he is cared for while he dies, he's still going to suffer. The death penalty is too good for him. Too quick. Let him suffer the lingering death of cancer like thousands of other good people have to with no relief.
*~You're IT Bert!~*
Hold on to the thread
The currents will shift
The irony is that there are so many law-abiding terminally ill people who want to end their lives without suffering, but aren't allowed to. He's getting exactly what these people want. Death by cancer is probably infinitely worse than anything the state can give him.
Executed.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3319056&page=1
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
All statistics prove that Capital Punishment is not a deterrent, countries without it actually tend to have lower murder rates.
Not all statistics prove that.
American Law and Economics Review V5 N2 2003 (344-376)
© 2003 American Law and Economics Association
Article
Does Capital Punishment Have a Deterrent Effect? New Evidence from Postmoratorium Panel Data
Hashem Dezhbakhsh, Paul H. Rubin and Joanna M. Shepherd
Emory University
Clemson University and Emory University
Abstract
Evidence on the deterrent effect of capital punishment is important for many states that are currently reconsidering their position on the issue. We examine the deterrent hypothesis by using county-level, postmoratorium panel data and a system of simultaneous equations. The procedure we employ overcomes common aggregation problems, eliminates the bias arising from unobserved heterogeneity, and provides evidence relevant for current conditions. Our results suggest that capital punishment has a strong deterrent effect; each execution results, on average, in eighteen fewer murders—with a margin of error of plus or minus ten. Tests show that results are not driven by tougher sentencing laws and are robust to many alternative specifications.
Economic Inquiry 2006 44(3):512-535; doi:10.1093/ei/cbj032
The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: Evidence from a "Judicial Experiment"
Hashem Dezhbakhsh and Joanna M. Shepherd*
We use panel data for 50 states during the 1960–2000 period to examine the deterrent effect of capital punishment, using the moratorium as a "judicial experiment." We compare murder rates immediately before and after changes in states' death penalty laws, drawing on cross-state variations in the timing and duration of the moratorium. The regression analysis supplementing the before-and-after comparisons disentangles the effect of lifting the moratorium on murder from the effect of actual executions on murder. Results suggest that capital punishment has a deterrent effect, and that executions have a distinct effect which compounds the deterrent effect of merely (re)instating the death penalty. The finding is robust across 96 regression models. (JEL C1, K1)