"HOURS after being sentenced to death by a sharia court in Somalia last May, Omar Hussein was publicly executed. He was hooded, tied to a stake and stabbed to death by the 16-year-old son of the man he had admitted stabbing to death three months earlier. In Kuwait, a Sri Lankan was executed last year by hanging, or so the authorities thought. After the body was taken to the morgue, medical staff saw he was still moving. He was finally pronounced dead only five hours after the execution had begun. In Iran, a man and a woman were stoned to death for extra-marital sex. The horrors of cruelly administered, or botched, execution are not confined to developing countries or to lands that follow the letter of hudud, traditional Islamic punishment. In Florida last December, Angel Diaz was executed by lethal injection. The three-drug cocktail that is used by 37 American states is supposed first to induce unconsciousness, then to paralyse muscles and block breathing, and finally to stop the heart. But after the first injection, Diaz continued to move, squint and grimace as he tried to mouth words. A second dose was administered; only after 34 minutes was he declared dead. A post mortem showed the first needle had plunged through the intended vein, injecting the deadly chemicals into soft tissue instead."
Thursday, May 03, 2007
"HOURS after being sentenced to death by a sharia court in Somalia last May, Omar Hussein was publicly executed. He was hooded, tied to a stake and stabbed to death by the 16-year-old son of the man he had admitted stabbing to death three months earlier. In Kuwait, a Sri Lankan was executed last year by hanging, or so the authorities thought. After the body was taken to the morgue, medical staff saw he was still moving. He was finally pronounced dead only five hours after the execution had begun. In Iran, a man and a woman were stoned to death for extra-marital sex. The horrors of cruelly administered, or botched, execution are not confined to developing countries or to lands that follow the letter of hudud, traditional Islamic punishment. In Florida last December, Angel Diaz was executed by lethal injection. The three-drug cocktail that is used by 37 American states is supposed first to induce unconsciousness, then to paralyse muscles and block breathing, and finally to stop the heart. But after the first injection, Diaz continued to move, squint and grimace as he tried to mouth words. A second dose was administered; only after 34 minutes was he declared dead. A post mortem showed the first needle had plunged through the intended vein, injecting the deadly chemicals into soft tissue instead."