On this date one year ago, Angel Diaz suffered lethal injection for the 1979 murder of a topless bar manager.
And “suffered” was the word. The procedure was botched, and Diaz took 34 minutes — and a second dose of the lethal three-drug cocktail — before dying, with chemical burns left on both arms.
The incident provoked an immediate media storm and a moratorium on executions in Florida pending the perversity of public servants molding killing procedure by committee. As a result, Diaz remains the last person executed in Florida, and 2007 will be the first year since 1982 that the Sunshine State puts nobody to death.
The debacle in Florida has been a microcosm for the nation. Lethal injection as an execution protocol was by this time last year already facing growing scrutiny. It was immediately apparent that Diaz’s execution could spell serious trouble for the American death penalty’s legal machinery.
And indeed that machinery has now ground to a halt, if only a temporary one. Facing judicial confusion, the Supreme Court is weighing a potential landmark case on the constitutionality of lethal injection, with actual executions — at least involuntary ones — under a de facto moratorium for months yet to come.
That same disquiet is setting down legislative as well as judicial milestones: New Jersey is poised to has this very day become the first American state to abolish the death penalty since 1965.
On this day..
- 1669: Susanna One-Ear - 2019
- 1856: Agesilao Milano, near-assassin - 2018
- 2009: One stoned and one shot by Islamic militants in Somalia - 2017
- 1943: The Massacre of Kalavryta - 2016
- Feast Day of St. Lucy - 2015
- 1949: John Wilson and Benjamin Roberts, Syd Dernley's first(s) - 2014
- 1980: Erdal Eren, leftist student - 2013
- 1889: John Gilman, tetchy landlord - 2012
- 1861: William Johnson, impulse deserter - 2011
- 1828: Manuel Dorrego, Governor of Buenos Aires - 2010
- 1532: Solomon Molcho - 2009
- 1945: The Belsen war criminals - 2008
If this we’re an animal I would be disturbed. Instead I am hoping this man experienced the same thing he put his victims through. So there is no boo hoo from me
Pingback: ExecutedToday.com » 2007: Michael Richard, whose time ran out
Do you wish to just skip the justice system all together? Convicts have the right to appeal the decision. I am Proexecution and think that they should expand the reasons that convicted crimminals are executed to include pedophiles. I think that it is simply disgusting that you serve more jail time for robbery than you do for completely destroying a child. They have scars for the rest of their life to the crap that was inflicted upon them. I think that the punishment system in the United States needs to be reevaluated. I thiink that Americans need to remember what is importand and their value system. I know that everything revolves around monetary matters but sooner or later Americans are going to have to make a choice between money and doing the right thing.
Proexecution: I simply feel we can do Hammurabi one better. Why should I, a taxpayer, be forced to help pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a guilty person to drag out his appeals? On the other hand, the average annual cost of keeping the prisoner alive & hosed, not in luxury, but in jail, is less than half. If the death penalty were carried out in less than 5 years after conviction, then yes, death is cheaper. However, allowing the person to grow old & die in jail costs significantly less than the average death penalty appeals process. There are some individuals who have no remorse and no impulse control and so can never be allowed to rejoin society (think Charles Manson) – but I fail to see why I should have to pay more than I must to keep myself safe.
“”Stepped away from Roman style justice” you say, I would like to hear what you have to say when one of your children or other family member is killed. I would like to hear that you don’t care how much taxes is going away from your paycheck to hold that criminal in the prison. To me is like ” you killed him/her, oh well you are only a human, here are some money for your food, and bed and whatever you do in prison, for the rest of your life, thank you, and sorry I can’t do more”
Crucifixion? Burning? Apart from China’s vivisecting executions for organ money and Russia’s mafia-style justice, the US is the only superpower that has the death penalty on the books. It is applied unfairly and unequally. Race matters, as does gender. Fewer whites and women are convicted of capital offenses and fewer still die. It has been proven to be economically better (read: cheaper) to allow the criminals to spend their lives in prison. In this recession, it’s why many states are turning away from the death penalty. I hope we have stepped, if only slightly, away from Roman style justice or our forefather’s witch-burning ways.
i agree sbl or burn them to death :3
Pingback: ExecutedToday.com » 2007: Not Earl Wesley Berry … for the time being
Like anyone really gives a crap if this man suffered while being executed. In my opinion he got away easy. Should have crucified him and let him die in severe agony over the course of several days – now THAT’S justice.