Tennessee executes man with implanted heart device despite concerns over shock risk

Black, 69, was in a wheelchair, suffering from dementia, brain damage, kidney failure, congestive heart failure and other conditions,

Oh, well, yeah, then I can see why he needed to be executed. Clearly he was an imminent danger to society and everyone around him.

/s

Needed to be executed quickly before he dies by himself!
- Yeah because if he did that then.... He ... Won? And we lost? I guess?
  Yeah!
- They didn't wanna let that moment go to waste
- Define "quickly." After all, they waited nearly 40 years for him to develop those conditions before they finally killed him
- at this point that's just cost saving.
  the healthcare cost exceds whatever the prison is getting, so just kill him instead.
It's hard for me to find sympathy for someone who murdered two children and their mother.
But even I have to admit that it feels fucked up to wait 40 years for a man to develop dementia and heart disease before executing him.
- depends on what capital punishment does for you personally. it's honestly not corrective or even preventative in any way. I know some living people I would wish that on and they didn't even commit murder. but I think I would rather live in a society that instead invested in making sure these crimes never happen
It's not about logic, or compassion, it's about JUSTICE - aka revenge, sending a message, setting an example, etc. etc.
While I don't agree with it, that's what a LOT of Tennessee voters want.
Well sure he never to be executed before he could commit the heinous crime of euthanasia!
That would be inhumane!
::: spoiler
/S

All seven media witnesses to the execution agreed he appeared to be in discomfort.

NO SHIT!! HE APPEARED TO BE IN DISCOMFORT?!

I wonder why?

Probably gas. I get the same way after eating too much fiber.
- those last meals can be real belly bombs
This is such a strange thing to write. I don't really understand this
Why is it treated like it's meant to be a day at work or something? Or a routine procedure? This is some very strange form of normalization

Medieval country.

This just in: the cruelty is the point.

Capital punishment should be abolished.

It already is, in civilized countries.
- It also is in many US states. Only 16 states have capital punishment and have executed anyone in the last 10 years, and 22 states do not have any form of capital punishment
  Per Wikipedia, Michigan was the first English speaking government to formally abolish the death penalty, abolishing it in 1847 (10 years after the state joined the union), shortly followed by Wisconsin in 1853 (5 years after the state joined the union) and Maine in 1887 (67 years after the state joined the union)
This. The state should not be able to decide who lives and who dies. Too many innocent people have and are put to death every year.

De fucking wat now?? That is excellent not-the-onion content but hoo boy…

Edit: this article is not exactly for the faint of heart. What a godawful thing to put this guy through.

Could I please not read the most heinous headline ever for five fucking seconds

If we're going to execute people, why can we not make a simple gas chamber and flood it with nitrogen gas? Simple, cheap, foolproof, no legal hassles about suffering or cruel and unusual punishment.

Why not just hanging, shooting or beheading? Weird how people are trying to sanitise capital punishment
it's long, drawn out, and afaik painful
- Nitrogen only atmospheres actually kill fairly quickly, and without any warning.
  That's what makes industrial nitrogen accidents so terrifying.
  The pain of suffocating is mostly your body fighting to get rid of CO2.
  Now, there was a prison that recently used "nitrogen" to execute someone. But they were dumbasses with it and didn't let the excess nitrogen and CO2 vent. It was exactly the same as just tying a bag over the guys head.
- Not in the slightest painful. You'll never notice anything going wrong. Nitrogen masks have been tried and failed awfully. That's why I said gas "chamber".
Even though there's no physical pain, opponents argue that the process involves great mental and emotional pain.
But I agree that it is one of the most humane and practical forms of involuntary euthanasia. Not that such a thing should be desired in the first place.
They have performed a handful executions using nitrogen gas over the last few years in Mississippi and Alabama. From what I understand, the people have all shown signs of distress and oxygen hunger during the executions, and the autopsies show signs of distress.
I think the pathologist that reviewed the first such execution had said that it would likely have gone better if a sedative were administered beforehand. However, I'm pretty sure that nitrogen hypoxia executions were being used because pharmaceutical companies were unwilling to provide medications for use in lethal injections, so that would likely extend to sedatives for use during executions. But in the absence of sedatives, the process is panic inducing, which causes people to resist inhaling the nitrogen, which in turn means that they are not exhaling as much carbon dioxide and thus experience the panic associated with suffocation.
Maybe we could fill it with nerve gas to spice things up
- On take your daughter to work day of all days?!
  Edit: Tired brain mixed up neurotoxin and nerve gas

Red states sure do like executing people, don't they? And it goes without saying he was Black.

It is possible for a person of color to commit a crime. Crazy, I know.
Don't get me wrong, I think there is still a alarming amount of racism in the justice system. However, not punishing someone because of their race isn't the solution. People of color are going to be disproportionately committing the most crimes because on average they have a much lower income and quality of life. The problems with our society are not something you can solve by being afraid to punish someone. People who are accused of a crime need to have their rights respected including a fair trial.
- There's numerous ethical reasons for the abolishment of capital punishment. The two the stand out the most to me are:
  Wrongful convictions - People have been convicted and executed and later exonerated with new evidence. People are wrongfully convicted with way too much frequency. It is far better if the person is still alive to find some quality of life after the state takes years from them than for them to have their name cleared after the state has executed them.
  Is the purpose of a given sentence deterrence, rehabilitation or state-sponsored revenge? I am of the opinion that criminal convictions should be focused entirely on rehabilitation. Take the person out of the situation and environment that caused them to commit the crime, focus on providing them education and services so that they can better help themselves avoid recidivism, and ultimately release them in a timely manner for a second try as a member of society but now with the tools and knowledge they lacked before to handle the bad situations that pulled them into the mess. Save locking people up for decades for those who re-offend and continue to commit heinous crimes without remorse
  State-sponsored revenge will never provide justice, and it has been proven repeatedly that severe sentences do not deter severe crimes. Neither are paths to justice, only paths to more incarcerated people
The blue states execute black people before they are even born

Who was at risk of being shocked?

If it was the person being executed: Isn't that the whole idea?

edit: Or maybe they were just worried that the defibrilator would have prevented him from dying. 🤔

I think the point of concern is that it prolonged the entire procedure. His heart was simultaneously being chemically stopped and electrically jump-started.
The defibrillator might actually make it a horrible slow death. Imagine dying over and over again.
There was a concern that the defibrillator would keep bringing him back to life.
Yeah, the concern was that the defibrillator was shocking his heart as his heart rate slowed down, causing unnecessary pain and distress.

Stay classy Tennessee

Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya Clay, 9, and Lakeisha Clay, 6. Prosecutors said he was in a jealous rage when he shot the three at their home. At the time, Black was on work-release while serving time for shooting Clay's estranged husband.

Yeah, he is infirm now. But he was a piece of shit then and, in my opinion, the only thing to take issue with is that it took 37 years to carry out his sentence.

What's the point of killing him, then or now? How does that help society in any way?
- What was the point of paying for him to live apart from society for these long decades?
  The point of killing him was to convey to everyone that there are rules. Sure, do whatever you want. We're pretty laid back. But, if you go off the rails and start gunning down innocent families, then you don't get to play anymore.
  I don't think that the US private prison system does nearly enough to help rehabilitate people. It practically does nothing at all, and I know that area can be improved. However, some things need to be nipped in the bud.