Tag Archives | Execution

Maddow: ‘Something Weird Is Going on’ in FBI Shooting of Ibragim Todashev

By on June 3, 2013 in News 0

Boston Police booking photo from 2010. Ibragim TodashevDavid Fergusen writes at Raw Story:

On Thursday night’s edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow discussed the swirl of questions around the shooting of Ibragim Todashev, an associate of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the two men charged with the bombing of the Boston Marathon.

FBI officials have given conflicting accounts of the questioning and killing of Todashev, who knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev through Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Todashev, who, like the Tsarnaevs, was Chechen, lived in Boston for a time before moving to Florida. Agents from the FBI traveled to Florida to question Todashev repeatedly about the bombing.

“Last week while being questioned again in Florida,” said Maddow, “something went very, very wrong and he ended up dead.”

Law enforcement officials were interviewing Todashev in his apartment in Orlando on Wednesday, May 22, when something occurred that resulted in the young man being shot multiple times.

On Thursday, Todashev’s family held a press conference in Moscow, where they showed autopsie photos of their slain son.

… Read the rest

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Henry Rollins Direct from the Death Chambers

By on October 18, 2012 in News 5

Henry Rollins is visiting 50 states with a politically-themed talk show, “Capitalism,” culminating with an election-eve performance in Washington D.C. on November 5th. This two-month tour stops in each state capital. We thought disinfonauts would like to check out episode no. 23, in which Henry visits Missouri State Penitentiary. With help from Bill Green, who used to be a guard at the Penitentiary, Henry discovers the cells, the grounds, and even where 35 inmates were given their death sentences.

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GOP Debate Audience Cheers Texas’s 234 Executions

By on September 8, 2011 in News 30

“I think Americans understand justice…In the state of Texas…you will face the ultimate justice.”

The biggest positive response at last night’s Republican presidential debate may have occurred when moderator Brian Williams, addressing Rick Perry, began, “Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times,” at which point he was interrupted as the crowd spontaneously broke into rapturous applause.

The Death Penalty Information Center lists nine people executed by Texas in recent years who were likely innocent.

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Which Is Better: Execution By Needle Or Electric Chair?

By on August 19, 2011 in News 28

Electric Chair at Sing SingThat’s the choice given to prisoners in Virginia. Guillaume Decamme reports for AFP:

JARRATT, Virginia — Behind a blue curtain, the electric chair patiently waits its turn to take a life, but on this night in a chamber of a Virginia prison, murder convict Jerry Jackson dies by the needle.

“Fifteen days prior to execution, the inmate is asked which execution method he chooses,” explains David Bass at the Greensville Correctional Center.

“He may choose between the electric chair and the lethal injection.” For the most part, Bass says, “they prefer the injection.”

The man in the dark suit, speaking in a soft southern twang, is all too aware that most of America’s death row inmates pick the poison over the pulse of electrocution.

Of the various execution methods currently in use in the United States — electricity, firing squad, hanging, lethal injection and lethal gas — injection has become the standard.

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How Long Do Severed Heads Live?

By on July 29, 2011 in News 21

dery1The latest science suggests that old-timey Europe’s  “humane” method of execution, decapitation, is a sham — heads seem remain alive for up to a minute after being disconnected from the lower portions. And theoretically they could survive if quickly reattached to a body. Via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Imagine yourself with your head in the business end of a guillotine. I know, it’s not the most pleasant of thoughts, but the guillotine was once considered a humane way to kill someone: Just a quick slice and you’re flat-out dead. But researchers are finding that neurons, the cells that make up the brain, are active even after their blood supply is suddenly cut off. And they may show activity for longer than a minute. In an arguably not-so-humane study, Dutch scientists measured the brain activity in mice after slicing off the mice’s heads. What they saw was a quick flash of brain activity immediately following decapitation – then, about 50 seconds later, another ripple of activity.

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Texas Blocked From Debuting Controversial New Lethal-Injection Cocktail

By on April 5, 2011 in News 18

ap_texas_execution_cleve_foster_nt_110405_mnThe state of Texas will have to wait until another day to try out a newly formulated death-inducing mixture which critics say could cause agonizing suffering. Cleve Foster, a Desert Storm veteran convicted of the murder of a woman he’d met in a bar, was scheduled to be executed tonight; this afternoon the Supreme Court blocked his execution for reasons including “questions related to his guilt.” The Atlantic Wire elaborates:

Foster has maintained his innocence for years, writing that he is “on death row waiting to die for a crime another man has confessed to.” He’s referring to Sheldon Ward, who was convicted alongside Foster in 2004 and has since died in prison of a brain tumor.

The drugs the state would have used to execute Foster–a cocktail of pentobarbital, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride–have never been used in a Texas execution before.

If the cocktail doesn’t work properly, says Stafford Smith, director of the human-rights organization Reprieve, then during his execution, Foster will experience “excruciating pain that has been likened to having one’s veins set on fire.”

… Read the rest

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Sole Thiopental Company Halts Production Over Death Penalty Use

By on January 21, 2011 in News 3

Guess we’ll have to hold off killing a few people, or just resort to “inhumane” ways of execution. Globe and Mail reports:

Hospira Inc. HSP-N, the only U.S. manufacturer of one of the drugs used in lethal injections, is halting production of a drug over a controversy in Europe about its use in capital punishment.

Many U.S. states have already run out of sodium thiopental, and today’s decision by Hospira could see further delays in executions.

Hospira had suspended production in 2009 but planned to start up again early this year at its facility in Liscate, Italy. Italy’s government, though, ordered the company to make certain that the drug manufactured in Italy wouldn’t be used for executions.

[Continues a Globe & Mail]… Read the rest

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