this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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The state of Missouri on Tuesday executed Brian Dorsey for the 2006 murders of his cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Benjamin Bonnie, after an effort to have his life spared failed in recent days.

Dorsey’s time of death was recorded as 6:11 p.m, the Missouri Department of Corrections said in a news release. The method of execution was lethal injection, Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the department, said at a news conference, adding it “went smoothly, no problems.”

The execution of Dorsey, 52, occurred hours after the US Supreme Court declined to intervene and about a day after Missouri’s Republican governor denied clemency, rejecting the inmate’s petition – backed by more than 70 correctional officers and others – for a commutation of his sentence to life in prison.

Dorsey and his attorneys cited his remorse, his rehabilitation while behind bars and his representation at trial by attorneys who allegedly had a “financial conflict of interest” as reasons he should not be put to death. But those arguments were insufficient to convince Gov. Mike Parson, who said in a statement carrying out Dorsey’s sentence “would deliver justice and provide closure.”

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[–] FlyingSquid 86 points 7 months ago (27 children)

This is what happens when you give the state the power of life and death over its citizens. Even the people who make up the low levels of power in the state have no actual voice when it comes to the state committing legally-sanctioned murder.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The actual argument on the death penalty - no matter if morally right or wrong, guilty or innocient, I sure as hell don't want the state to decide!

[–] SuckMyWang 30 points 7 months ago (1 children)

A lot of these people believe in god too apparently. They must have such little faith in an afterlife. If you actually believed god will judge evil people with eternal punishment what’s the rush? Let god, the all seeing all knowing judge them. Eternity seems like a long enough sentence. They’re not really acting like they believe it

[–] FlyingSquid 24 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Apparently their god is no longer omnipotent enough to smite, so they have to do it on his behalf. Weird, because he used to do a lot of smiting a few thousand years ago.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

@FlyingSquid @SuckMyWang

Their God is on meth laying around his heavenly house trailer in his wife beater and he is doing absolutely nothing.

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[–] dual_sport_dork 14 points 7 months ago

And remember, your state is run by the same motherfuckers who can't reliably fix a pothole. And anyone expects them to catch the right guy 100% of the time?

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[–] Nobody 41 points 7 months ago (19 children)

He was murdered by the state. That's what the "death penalty" is. It's state-sanctioned murder. Barbarous.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (12 children)

We also have state-sanctioned kidnapping, wherein the convicted are taken from their families and held against their will, sometimes for years at a time.

There are many good arguments against the death penalty. I don't think those that just rephrase what is done in an emotional way are good ones.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago (2 children)

It's insane to me that he couldn't appeal on the basis of not having been provided an attorney with an incentive to work on his case.

[–] FlyingSquid 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is why rich people so often avoid prison time.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

... but poor people don't.

Sorry, it was implied but felt unfinished.

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[–] art 27 points 7 months ago

We need to abolish the death penalty in this country. This simply should not be a thing we do.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

it went smoothly, no problem

I'm sure this bastard is a shit stain that deserves to be locked away for the rest of his life. Don't let the state murder people, though. No death penalties, it's a bad, bad idea that has been outlawed in civil nations. If the US ever wishes to become a civil nation, it needs to outlaw it too.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The method of execution was lethal injection, Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the department, said at a news conference, adding it “went smoothly, no problems.”

We don't actually know that, because lethal injection (needlessly) includes a paralytic. His death could have been slow agony and there would be no way to know. Lethal injection is quite possibly the most brutal method of execution the US has ever employed. If I end up on death row I'll pray for the firing squad.

[–] deranger 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Lethal injection is quite possibly the most brutal method of execution the US has ever employed.

Citation needed.

I’m absolutely putting electric chair and execution chamber above it.

The paralytic is the first thing to potentially kill you as you stop breathing. Then the barbiturates also stop you breathing. Then the potassium stops your heart.

None of this would qualify as agonizing in comparison to getting electrocuted or breathing poisonous gas. The worst pain seems to be would be related to getting venous access or potential infiltration from a bad stick. A paralytic and barbiturates are not causing pain.

I don’t agree with the death penalty, but lethal injection isn’t the worst we’ve used.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

If performed correctly, without human error, it should kill inmates quickly and painlessly. Yet each of the four main steps involved — securing IV access and then injecting each of the three drugs — has raised medical concerns. Starting an IV can be very difficult on a person who is obese, nervous or cold or who has a history of IV drug use, any one of which is not an unlikely complication in an inmate about to killed. Sodium pentothal is not packaged in solution, meaning the executioners must mix the powder with water just before killing, a somewhat delicate thing to do. The pancuronium bromide, or paralytic, prevents observers from determining if the inmate is properly anesthetized, since he can’t speak or move. Potassium chloride, which stops the heart, creates a burning sensation in the veins and might cause excruciating pain if the inmate is not properly anesthetized. (These concerns, and others, appear in the 1953 British report.)

https://web.archive.org/web/20170203051825/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/magazine/11injection.t.html

Anaesthesia during lethal injection is essential to minimise suffering and to maintain public acceptance of the practice. Lethal injection is usually done by sequential administration of thiopental, pancuronium, and potassium chloride. Protocol information from Texas and Virginia showed that executioners had no anaesthesia training, drugs were administered remotely with no monitoring for anaesthesia, data were not recorded and no peer-review was done. Toxicology reports from Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina showed that post-mortem concentrations of thiopental in the blood were lower than that required for surgery in 43 of 49 executed inmates (88%); 21 (43%) inmates had concentrations consistent with awareness. Methods of lethal injection anaesthesia are flawed and some inmates might experience awareness and suffering during execution.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130729013249/http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2805%2966377-5/abstract

I mean, it's all subjective. The electric chair is up there, for sure. I do think I'd rather be gassed. But the thought of being paralyzed, unable to move, while my veins are burning? That's terrifying. My main question is: why the paralytic? The barbiturates are supposed to put you under, and the potassium is what kills you. The answer is the comfort of the executioners and witnesses.

[–] deranger 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Those are all valid concerns but still not “the most brutal method of execution the US has ever employed” IMO. That’s what I take issue with. If you look at edge cases for hanging, firing squad, electric chair etc. you’ll find far more brutal executions due to complications.

For most people it’s a quick death. If nitrogen or helium asphyxiation wasn’t available, I’d go for lethal injection.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lethal injection gets botched badly enough that people notice it 7% of the time, the highest of any execution method. And again, those are the botchings we know about, because the method is designed to hide its failures. We have evidence (which I've already cited) that this may happen up to 40% of the time. In contrast, the next highest rate of botchings is gassing with 5%. I stand by my statement (which was hedged). Between how awful the botched deaths might be and the sheer number of them relative to how many are performed, it could well be the most brutal method.

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/botched-executions

[–] FlyingSquid 12 points 7 months ago

because the method is designed to hide its failures

I think that's the real issue here. We will not ever know the severity unless they stop administering the paralytic.

I'm not sure why something like a simple barbiturate overdose isn't enough for these people. The cruelty seems to be part of the point, as if knowing the specific date and time of your death isn't cruel enough.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (12 children)

The state should not have the right to end your life if you pose no immediate harm to anyone.

Death isn't justice. It's just death.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 months ago (2 children)

is it really that much of a surprise that the most conservative and conservative christian states really love imposing the harshest old testament level punishments on as many people as possible?

forgiveness and rehabilitation? that sounds like something christ would do. fuck that, string him up on the old maple tree in the park so we can make an example out of him.

notice the same states proudly claiming to be pro life lead the nation in infant mortality, post birth mortality, and death sentences. it only shows that "pro life" only emphasizes the developing life, not any of it fully developed.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (4 children)

The death penalty is anti-christian imo. Man's judgement is fallible and we are all made in the image of God.

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[–] foggy 21 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Our country has gotten grim over the last decade, and if you don't see it, that's scary.

[–] Burn_The_Right 10 points 7 months ago

Conservatism has been on the rise. Conservatism is death.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] foggy 8 points 7 months ago

You just gotta wait till it commits 3 felonies.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I heard of this one. I can't help but think that this guy was just killed because it will be cheaper in the long run to excute him rather then pay to keep him in prison. I dont think this was about mercy, rehabilitation or justice it was about profit and the value of human lives.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It's mostly about right-wing virtue signaling.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

A couple of decades ago I listened to a story about a guy who was ultimately saved from death row; when the family of the victim was interviewed, one of them said that she didn’t agree with the decision, that even after being told that this guy had been proven not to be the murderer, she didn’t care, someone had to pay for killing her sister.

That’s when I learned that the death penalty is not at all about justice. It’s revenge.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

iirc execution is more expensive than keeping an I mate for life. how? idk, that's just what I remember

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