Holy shit - execution botched in Oklahoma tonight so second execution

[Swede Atlanta]

131. I hope constitutional scholars recognize this for what this is.....

Last edited Wed Apr 30, 2014, 10:04 AM - Edit history (1)

this action by the governor of Oklahoma is nothing short of a constitutional crisis.

I haven't followed the details but on Rachel's show last night she said the Supreme Court of the State issued a stay pending disclosure of the contents/process and sources for the drugs to be used as defense counsel for both men had reason to believe the planned drugs/process would inflict significant pain.

Then a state representative said he was going to bring an action in the legislature to impeach all of the justices of the Court. At that point the Court caved and lifted their stay which then allowed these two executions to be scheduled back-to-back, one at 1800 hours and the next at 2000. It is kind of like the theaters that have to allow time to get the viewers from the 1800 show out, clean up the theater, re-roll the film (I know it is all digital today) and get ready for the next show.

During the first execution the prisoner sat up and said something like "something is wrong here", licked his lips and then started to have seizures. They rushed him off to a hospital but he died of a massive heart attack either enroute or at the hospital.

First of all I don't know about you but, regardless of the crime committed by a person, objectively, killing them by any means is arguably "cruel and unusual punishment". But if you are going to kill them then, again despite if they inflicted great pain on their victims and the pain of the victims' families and friends, it needs to not rise to the level of cruel and unusual punishment.

Giving someone drugs that then causes them to have seizures and then die of a massive heart attack is cruel and unusual punishment in my book.

But the botched execution is one constitutional issue.

The one I am most concerned about is the governor refusing the order of her state's highest court. This is indeed a constitutional crisis. If we are now going to have state executives begin to defy court orders we are lost. The courts have no mechanism to enforce their orders or prevent actions by an executive that are contrary to their orders. There is a reliance on civilized, ordered constitutional society. In this country it has long been recognized that court orders must be obeyed.

This was the same situation during the Nixon Watergate period when he defied an order of the SCOTUS. It teed up a constitutional crisis. Congressional action to begin impeachment hearings was necessary to get the scumbag to step down.

This is where we are headed I'm afraid. Vigilante governors (and potentially a future Repub president) will begin to act contrary to the rule of law and orders of the relevant court. When that happens we are lost. It is time to move to Somalia or somewhere because we are no better than they are.

I plan to call the governor's office and ask her to resign effective immediately. That will never happen but this is serious, very serious.