[FADPUpdate] EXCAT

[melliott3 at aol.com]

Friends,
 
It has been a very busy time preparing for the Governor's Commission on the Administration of Lethal Injection meetings.  Whew! Even the title takes a long time to say.  Part of the prep is to study press articles.  This one is a pip!  Sometimes a sense of humor is necessary as a respite from dealing with the horrific results of stiff-necked ignorance and injustice.  Enjoy.
 
---Mark Elliott
Director, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org
 
Inject EXCAT into state schools
By Jac Wilder VerSteeg
Palm Beach Post Deputy Editorial Page Editor
Thursday, February 15, 2007
 
Experts have been holding hearings to determine why the execution of Angel Nieves Diaz went bad. I think I've found a clue:
 
"I have no medical training and no qualifications," the lead executioner testified last week. Hmm. Yes, I suppose that could be significant
 
Florida executed Diaz on Dec. 13. It took two doses of the lethal drugs and 34 minutes - twice as long as usual - for Diaz to die. The needles got stabbed too far into his arms, through the targeted veins and into the tissue, where the injected pancuronium and potassium were absorbed too slowly.
 
The medical term for this, as fans of old Bill Cosby routines would know, is "Oops."
 
The panel ex-Gov. Bush appointed to kill time while the story blew over is supposed to offer recommendations by March 1. The panel will deal with many issues, such as making sure that the inmate being executed doesn't feel pain. Murderers, I'm sure, soon will convene a panel to explore ways of ensuring that their own victims don't suffer.
 
While preventing pain during state-run executions is a must - the constitution says so - no issue is more important than making sure that the executioner knows how to execute. Mark Heath, an anesthesiologist at Columbia University Medical Center, testified last week that, "Lethal injection is a very complicated way of killing people." The drugs must be given in the proper combination and at the proper time so that the anesthesia kicks in before the painful poisons.
 
Therefore, Dr. Heath suggests, "These drugs should only be administered by trained and experienced medical specialists."
 
Real doctors, though, can't do it because professional ethics forbid them to inflict harm. So, there is a demonstrated need for experts competent to carry out executions. What's lacking is a pool of qualified candidates to fill that need. The solution? I think it could begin with Florida's public schools.
 
One of former Gov. Bush's countless bold, innovative educational reforms requires eighth-graders to pick a major for high school. The state has approved lists of majors to accommodate nearly every career path, including curricula for aspiring biologists, translators, actors, writers, mechanics or chefs.
 
But there's nothing for the special youth who wishes to become an executioner. In retrospect, given the importance of conducting competent executions to preserving Florida's safety and reputation, the omission is a serious lapse.
 
Easily corrected, thank goodness. Majors need to take four courses in their field. For execution majors, courses could include: Injections I, Injections II, Injections III, Injections IV (not to be confused with IV Injections), Right Arm Anatomy, Left Arm Anatomy, Dosage Do's and Don'ts, Veins In-Depth and Gurney Maintenance and Repair.
 
It has become Florida's practice to administer a high-stakes test in all critical areas of education, such as reading, writing, mathematics and science. Obviously, to maintain accountability, the state should develop and administer the EXCAT. Done correctly, the course and test even could help alleviate the area's feral feline problem.
 
Aside from helping to fulfill Florida's demand for professional executioners, providing an execution major probably would provide a wholesome alternative to gangs. Stay in school and, at the same time, earn street cred as a bona fide killer. With luck, an execution major one day could go on to legally whack a rival gang member who chose to operate outside the law.
 
Will there be enough work for Florida's executioners? Undoubtedly. Several other states have joined Florida in suspending lethal injections while they figure out how to do the deed properly. That creates a backlog. Granted, it could take several years for public schools and colleges to start churning out executioners. But Death Row inmates are used to waiting. The average stay is 12 years. However many years it takes, Florida must find an answer to this problem. The horrible alternative was demonstrated this week when George Wallace Brown, 58, managed to get off Death Row - after 16 years - without ever being executed for the fatal stabbing in 1990 of a Lakeland man.
 
How did Brown do it? He died of natural causes.
 

 


 
Find this article at: 
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/02/15/a22a_Versteegcol_0215.html 
 
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