"I'll make true art when it says nothing and nothing has not spoken clear. The heart is a mighty master, but so is what we can't hear."For death row inmates in Indonesia, execution usually comes on a deserted beach or remote jungle at the hands of a paramilitary firing squad. And, it rarely comes fast.
Under the direction of the prosecutor's office and after three days' notice to the prisoner, a squad of around 10 to 13 police from the elite paramilitary Mobile Brigade is selected following a practice session shooting at human-shaped targets.
The actual time and place selected will be under the direction of the prosecutor, General-Attorney's spokesman R.J. Soehandoyo said. But it will usually be early morning and will be out of public sight. If on a beach, the convict will be handcuffed to a pole placed in the sand.
The Brimob officers will not know who fired the fatal shots. They choose from a row of guns laid out around 10 metres from the condemned prisoner and only two of the weapons contain live rounds.
Death does not often come quickly. "With a firing squad, there is often a time lapse until they actually die," Soehandoyo said, adding death must be certified by a doctor.
"There is usually around a 3 to 5 minute (period) until his death." To improve the likelihood of a quick execution, usually a white apron is hung on the convict with a round red target over the heart.
The prisoner is always hooded and may also choose to wear a blindfold. Sometimes the prisoner chooses to go bare-chested, in which case a target cross will be taped to their skin.
Soehandoyo said the person is only rarely shot through the temple to hasten death because the body must be collected by relatives for burial.
"We don't want him to be in misery for long. Basically, we try to give the best to him in his last minutes of life. As a human, we can understand his needs. But we must also make him understand that especially as he is going to be taken by his family, it must not be in dreadful condition. Let's say he shall not die dreadfully," Soehandoyo said.
Indonesia has always had the death penalty and last year executed two Thais and an Indian for drug smuggling. But the country is mulling legal changes which would allow the firing squad to be replaced by a lethal injection as the means of execution.
"At the moment, the attorney-general would love some changes. Death by injection won't cause so much suffering," Soehandoyo said.
NO SUCH THING AS A "HUMANE" EXECUTION:
ACADP argues that there is no such thing as a "humane" or "clean" execution of a healthy living human being.
The search for a "humane" way of killing people should be seen for what it is --- a search to make executions more palatable to those carrying out the killing, to the governments that wish to appear humane, and to the public in whose name the killing is to be carried out.
The following is the cold-blooded, premeditated "ritual" for lethal injection as portrayed to the public.
The prisoner is brought in by a tactical tie-down team of five cold-blooded prison guards and laid on the bed-type death gurney. The five members of the tie-down team are each assigned a different part of the condemned prisoner's body, and are responsible for strapping that body part (eg. arm, leg, head, etc.) to the death gurney, for the sole purpose of turning the prisoner's body into a corpse.
The prisoner is strapped to the death gurney with lined ankle and wrist restraints. A cardiac monitor and a stethoscope are attached, and two saline intravenous lines are started, one in each arm. The prisoner is then covered with a white sheet. The saline intravenous lines are turned off, and a dose of Sodium Thiopental is injected. This causes the prisoner to fall into a deep sleep. The second chemical agent, Pancuronium Bromide, is a muscle relaxant. This causes the inmate to stop breathing due to paralysis of the diaphragm and lungs. Finally, Potassium Chloride is injected which disrupts the normal electrolyte balance to the heart. This stops the heart from beating.
The process of turning a living body into a corpse is said to take place between 10-12 minutes. However, things do go wrong, so terribly wrong, and sometimes it takes much, much, longer.
THE TRUTH ABOUT EXECUTION BY LETHAL INJECTION:
The following is a mere glimpse of the 'cruel and unusual punishment' of lethal injection. Sadly, it rarely reaches the public via media reporting.
* The worst of the worst, was for Tommie Smith.
He was not pronounced dead until one hour and 20 minutes after his execution began. Because executioners' could not find a suitable vein in Smith's arm, they had to insert an angio-catheter into his heart. That took 35 minutes. Smith remained conscious throughout the whole ordeal. After the lethal chemicals begin flowing into his veins and after eighteen violent convulsions, Smith is pronounced dead.
* The most recent was that of Jose Martinez High. He was pronounced dead one hour and nine minutes after the execution began. After spending 39 fruitless minutes stabbing needles into Jose High's body (a former drug addict) in search of a suitable vein, the execution team under contract to do the job, abandoned their efforts. Then, in violation of the ethical code of the American Medical Association, a medical physician was called in to find a suitable vein. Eventually, one needle was stuck in High's hand and a second needle was inserted in High's neck. The prisoner remained conscious throughout the ordeal. Prison officials turned off the microphone in the death chamber so that witnesses could not hear the condemned's screams. His body looked like a pin-cushion after being pushed, punctured and stabbed with catheter needles. But High's pain was clear for witnesses to see, once prison officials opened the curtains on the window of the execution chamber. A reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote; "During the procedure, Jose High grimaced, appeared to cry, blinked rapidly and stared at a clock on the wall. At one point he cried out, but his words were unintelligible because the microphone in the room had been turned off...the difficulty inserting the intravenous had visible physical responses on Jose High."
* In the case of Rickey Ray Rector, a mentally retarded Arkansas prisoner, it took executioners' 45 minutes to find a suitable vein in his body, in which to insert the intravenous tube. Eight prison officials tried to find a suitable vein that would not collapse - but in the end, Rector had to help his own executioners' insert the intravenous.
* Bennie Demps Prison officials struggled for 33 minutes to insert the lethal intravenous drip into Bennie Demps' vein. "They butchered me back there," Demps shouted just before his execution. "I was in a lot of pain, they cut me in the groin, they cut me in the leg. I was bleeding profusely." Demps said prison officials twice sliced into his body and had stitched up one wound before taking him to the execution chamber. The prison warden claimed Demps was just "griping - what a bad sport". Demps pleaded with his lawyer George Schaefer, to investigate the way the state executioners' handled him. In a letter to the state attorney Rod Smith, George Schaefer called for a formal investigation into the execution.
* John Wayne Gacy... After the execution began, one of the three lethal drugs clogged the tube leading to Gacy's vein in his arm, and therefore stopped flowing. Curtains covering the window of the execution chamber were closed, so that witnesses could not see the botch-up. The clogged tube was replaced with a new tube. The curtains were re-opened, and the execution process resumed.
* Michael Elkin ... Elkins's execution was delayed for 40 minutes while numerous attempts were made to insert the intravenous needles in a suitable vein for the lethal injection. Because of Elkins' poor physical condition, the first needle was ultimately inserted in
Elkins's neck. Attempts to use veins in his arms, legs, and feet were unsuccessful, therefore the second needle was not inserted.
* Stephen Peter Morin ... Prison officials had to poke and probe both of Morin's arms and legs with catheter needles for 45 minutes, before they found a suitable vein to begin the flow of lethal drugs.
* Raymond Landry ... Two minutes into his execution, the syringe popped out of Landy's vein, spraying the deadly chemicals across the room and toward the witnesses. The curtain on the window of the execution chamber was closed for 14 minutes, so witnesses could not see the insanity. Landry was pronounced dead 40 minutes after being strapped to the death gurney and 24 minutes after the lethal drugs first started flowing into his veins.
* Stephen McCoy.... The prisoner had such a violent physical reaction to the lethal chemicals. His heaving chest, gasping, and choking, caused a witness (male) to faint, crashing into and knocking over another witness.
* Billy Wayne White ... It took 47 minutes for prison officials to find a suitable vein. Incredibly, White eventually had to help his state-sanctioned killers find a suitable vein in his body.
* Emmitt Foster... He was not pronounced dead until 30 minutes after the executioners' began the flow of lethal chemicals into the veins in his arms. Seven minutes after the chemicals began to flow, the curtains on the window to the execution chamber were closed, to prohibit the witnesses from viewing the insanity. The curtains were not re-opened until three minutes after death was pronounced. According to the coroner, who pronounced death, the problem was caused by the tightness of the leather straps that bound Foster to the death gurney - it was so tight that the flow of chemicals into his veins was restricted. The coroner entered the death chamber twenty minutes after the execution began, noticed the problem and told prison officials to loosen the strap so that the execution could proceed. It was several minutes after a prison official finally loosened the strap that death was pronounced.
* Joseph Cannon... In the first attempt at killing him, a vein in his arm collapsed and the needle popped out. "It's come undone," Cannon told witnesses. Prison officials closed the curtains on the window to the execution chamber for some 15 minutes. Then, the second try to kill Cannon, began again.
CONCLUSION:
In common with other execution methods, lethal injection (a.k.a. poison) overcomes none of the fundamental objections to the death penalty.
Its much promoted "humane" qualities are of marginal benefit to the prisoner who ends up dead and who has, in some cases, spent years awaiting execution and then varying periods up to an hour while a suitable vein is found, the needle inserted and the lethal chemicals injected.
The search to perfect the "humane and ideal" way to kill prisoners is hardly a sign of a humane society.
by ACADP 21 April 05
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Related:
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THE LAW IS AN ASS:
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US: Execution Dear Friends, this is so sad especially for our dear friend, San Nguyen. San who lives in Oklahoma worked very hard with the rest of the Vietnamese community to stop Mr. Le's execution. You may remember San from being at CURE's First International Conference in New York City in 2001. San also plans to be at the 8th National Convention this June in Washington. Charlie
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A Question of Innocence Rubin Carter: Day after day, week after week, I would sit in that filthy cell, seething. I was furious at everyone. At the two state witnesses who lied, at the police who put them up to it, at the prosecutor who sanctioned it, at the judge who allowed it, at the jury who accepted it, and at my own lawyer, for not being able to defeat it.
Amnesty steps up campaign to abolish death penalty Human rights watchdog Amnesty International is urging people around the world to pressure countries to abolish the death penalty.
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TEXAS EXECUTES 300th PRISONER Keith Clay was executed tonight, becoming the 300th prisoner in Texas to die by lethal injection since the rogue state resumed the death penalty 20 years ago.
AUSTRALIAN COALITION AGAINST DEATH PENALTY " ... Our nation was built on a promise of life and liberty for all citizens. Guided by a deep respect for human dignity, our Founding Fathers worked to secure these rights for future generations, and today we continue to seek to fulfil their promise in our laws and our society.
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USA - A NATION IN TURMOIL: As the year 2002 draws to a close, little if anything, has changed in the United States in regards to state-sanctioned killing. Various campaigns, calls for clemency, petitions, and international condemnation, have failed to humanize U.S. politicians.
Here come de Judge - Time to Leave [266]
There have always been examples of rulings and interpretations that have supported the saying "The law is an ass". This is increasingly the case, because even the best intentioned judges are now facing an avalanche of new technologies and social change. But, it is no good making excuses for the judiciary and continuing to accept their strange interpretations. We must recognise that not only judges but the whole legal system will struggle more and more. In the end the whole system will become a farce. This is the way empires end.
