The Controversy Over What Constitutes Cruel and Unusual Punishment
While the crimes subject to the death penalty varies slightly by state, rest assured that those who are ultimately convicted have committed a heinous crime, some of which may have left the victim scarred for life while inflicting lasting physical and psychological damage. Either that or dead.
These men and women put onto death row are provided full access to due process, while their victims were certainly not afforded that same luxury. At the point in time that they are denied the last minute appeal from the governor of the state and they walk the "Green Mile", they have most likely spent years on death row, enjoying the benefits of life if not freedom. For the family of the victim that they murdered or of the child that they raped, this is the justice that they had waited years to receive.
The Biros Case In Ohio
(AP) "Biros, 51, killed 22-year-old Tami Engstrom near Warren in 1991 after offering to drive her home from a bar, then scattered her body parts in Ohio and Pennsylvania."
While Kenneth Biros awaits death for the crime described above, the controversy does not revolve around his victim, it revolves around what it is that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment for his death.
Romell Broom, a convicted rapist and murderer had 18 attempts made to put the needle into his arm, all unsuccessful until finally the execution had to be called off. They hit muscle and bone and they still could not find a vein. It apparently got so painful for this man being put to death for unspeakable acts that the Governor of Ohio said no mas (Broom is appealing to stop the State from trying again).
Ohio is now going to go to the one shot method instead of three, because it lessens the chance of pain and suffering for the dying man, although it may take 15 minutes of a peaceful deeper and deeper sleep before death, rather than the 7 minutes when using the current process.
The lawyer for Biros is looking to get the execution stayed because Ohio would be the first state to use this method, it has never been used before in any "civilized" country and would amount to human experimentation. The United States Supreme Court said that the three shot method should only be changed if a new method lessened the potential for pain to the dying man.
Seven minutes or fifteen minutes makes little difference to the victims or victims families of the people who through years of appeal and the presence of DNA testing have made it to this final step. Who protected the victims from cruel and inhuman punishment. How painful was the death of Tami Engstrom, and what steps did Biros make to ensure that his mutilated murder victim did not suffer? For the past 18 years this man lived and fought for his life, while callously taking that of a woman who today would be a 40 year old, possibly married and possibly with children.
Seven minutes or fifteen minutes? Some potential pain or discomfort? Is this a discussion that needs to be in our courts? Is this a debate that serves the victims families or in the case of rape the victims themselves? Who is protecting them?
Photo courtesy of NowPublic.net
Comments
the death penalty is wrong but some people need it
The death penalty is the only thing that keeps people like this from ever hurting anyone again...Keep it in tact and they know what they have to look forward to..they make their own choice then.. take a life you give up yours..simple..we wouldn't have the garbage out there that is there had they left it in tact before...was put there for a reason..death penalty serves a purpose.
If some people need it, then how can it be wrong?
It is called Justice - something us Americans have forgotten lately!
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