CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

• Current Case Studies

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Capital Punishment

• Knowledge and Understanding historic and
  contemporary use of Capital Punishment in UK and
  world-wide (including overview of historic and
  current case studies), methods of execution, UN
  declarations.
• Analysis Religious and secular viewpoints on
  the issues.
• Evaluation Comment on the strengths and
  weaknesses of viewpoints on capital punishment
  religious and moral implications for the
  individual and society.

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Case Studies

• Saddam Hussein
• Romell Broom

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Saddam Hussein

• As president of Iraq, Saddam maintained power
  during the IranIraq War of 1980 through 1988,
  and throughout the Persian Gulf War of 1991.
• During these conflicts, Saddam suppressed several
  movements, particularly Shi'a and Kurdish
  movements seeking to overthrow the government or
  gain independence, respectively.

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Saddam Hussein

• By 2003, the administration of U.S. President
  George W. Bush had convinced the public that
  Saddam remained sufficiently relevant and
  dangerous to be overthrown.
• In March of that year, the U.S. and its allies
  invaded Iraq, eventually deposing Saddam.

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Saddam Hussein

• Hussein was captured by U.S. forces on 13
  December 2003, Saddam was brought to trial under
  the Iraqi interim government set up by U.S.-led
  forces.
• He was accused of crimes against humanity.

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• The torture and deaths of hundreds of thousands
  of Iraqis.
• These were victims of a poison gas attack on
  Halabja, 1988.

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• Kurds facing death by government firing squads.

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Conviction

• On 5 November 2006, he was convicted of charges
  related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites
  suspected of planning an assassination attempt
  against him, and was sentenced to death by
  hanging.
• Saddam was hanged on the first day of Eid
  ul-Adha, 30 December 2006, despite his wish to be
  shot (which he felt would be more dignified).

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Controversy

• The execution was videotaped on a mobile phone,
  showing Saddam being taunted before his hanging,
  and he and his captors insulting each other.
• The video was leaked to electronic media and
  posted on the Internet within hours, becoming the
  subject of global controversy.

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Saddam Hussein what do you think?

• Public/Private?
• Humane?
• Acceptable as a form of punishment?
• Who are we to judge?

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Romell Broom

• Romell Broom has been sentenced to die for the
  rape and murder of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton in
  1984.

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Romell Broom

• Romell Broom was to be executed at 10 AM on
  Tuesday, September 15, in Ohio. 
• The execution was delayed as the U.S. Court of
  Appeals for the Sixth Circuit considered granting
  him a hearing. 
• When that temporary stay was lifted, the
  execution process began again with a searching
  for a suitable vein in Broom's arm to insert an
  IV and to inject the lethal chemicals.

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• However, after two hours of fruitless endeavour,
  the correctional officers were unable to complete
  the execution. 
• Governor Ted Strickland intervened and granted a
  week-long stay of execution while the state
  evaluates its procedures.  Ohio has had a series
  of problems with its lethal injection process.

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Issues raised

• This case raises a series of constitutional and
  ethical issues including
• whether present standards of decency would reject
  subjecting a person to repeated attempts at
  execution
• whether the lethal injection process requires
  medical participation to avoid being cruel and
  unusual punishment
• whether the process being attempted in Ohio and
  elsewhere amounts to human experimentation and
  torture.

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Chronology of a failed execution

• Tuesday 15th September
• 508 a.m. Broom awakens for the day.
• 551 a.m. Broom is escorted to the shower.
• 627 a.m. Broom eats breakfast of cereal.
• 807 a.m. The chemicals used in Ohio executions
  -- thiopental sodium, pancuronium
• bromide and potassium chloride -- are delivered
  to the death house.
• 931 a.m. Execution preparations put on hold
  while the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of
• Appeals weighs a last-minute appeal request.
• 1228 p.m. Broom eats a lunch of creamed
  chicken, biscuits, green beans, mashed
• potatoes, salad and grape drink.
• 1248 p.m. The 6th Circuit says it will not
  review the appeal. Execution scheduled to
• begin at 130 p.m.

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Chronology of a failed execution

• 124 p.m. First round of lethal drugs is
  destroyed.
• 131 p.m. Replacement drugs are delivered to the
  death house.
• 201 p.m. Medical team enters holding cell and
  begins trying to insert IVs.
• 230 p.m. Unable to find a usable vein, team
  leaves the cell to take a break.
• 242 p.m. Team members back in cell trying
  again.
• 244 p.m. Prisons director Terry Collins tells
  the medical team to take another break.
• 249 p.m. Broom wipes his face with a tissue,
  appears to be crying.
• 257 p.m. Broom asks that his attorney, Adele
  Shank, be allowed to watch. Around 3
• p.m. Tim Sweeney, a Cleveland attorney also
  representing Broom, sends a letter to
• Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Moyer
  asking the court to stop the
• execution on the grounds that Broom is suffering
  cruel and unusual punishment.

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Watch this space