It Is Really Hard to See the Tragedy in This Execution

7/28/26 CNN:

James Aren Duckett, 68, was pronounced dead at 1:19 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. The 11th inmate executed by the state this year, Duckett was convicted of raping and drowning an 11-year-old girl while working as a police officer in a small central Florida city in 1987.

Idaho Wants Robotic Executioner

9/2/25 CBS Channel 2:

"BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — The Idaho Statesman first reported that as Idaho works toward making the firing squad the primary form of execution, the State is also looking for a way to mechanize the actual firing of the gun."

I am not surprised.   Throughout history, executioner have been well-paid because it exactly a toll on those doing it.  Even when done at the active encouragement of the government and often executing pretty despicable people, it is a heavy burden to kill another person.  If you read Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men about the reserve policemen assigned to carry out the genocide in Eastern Europe during World War Ii, you realize how destructive it was.  This is why the National Socialists set up death camps to reduce the sense of responsibility that ordinary men feel when taking lives.

All In for the Angry Parents Vote

5/1/23 USA Today:

"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law a measure making child rape subject to the death penalty, defying a United States Supreme Court ruling.

"In Florida, we stand for the protection of children," DeSantis said at a Monday press conference in Brevard County. "We think that in the worst of the worst cases the only appropriate punishment is the ultimate punishment."

This is contrary to Kennedy v. Louisiana, which held the death penalty for raping children was unconstitutional.  I suspect a more originalist Court might reconsider that position now.  Rape (of an adult woman or man) was a capital offense in colonial America and stayed that way until mid-19th century in some states.  

Reading Kennedy v. Louisiana was a stomach turning experience.  The stepfather tried to blame the stepdaughter's rape on some black boys.  He called a disaster restoration company to clean up the crime scene telling them that his daughter had become a little lady they day.  That statement alone should have given him prison time.

Why some states made rape of children capital

Until Justice Kennedy wrote Louisiana v. Kennedy a few years back. https://news3lv.com/news/local/las-vegas-man-sentenced-in-midwest-child-sex-abuse-case?fbclid=IwAR1SN7wGguN0BlahT0G9bLPfJg3T7VwTfO0bcp1yop_GPrwnfRDRZIBcU78 is the story of  a conviction of a guy who arranged a meet to rape a 1 year old, and did so.

The Guy Executed (Badly) In Oklahoma Last Week?

I mentioned that he shot his victim, and had her buried alive.  Ann Coulter has the rest of the details of the crime -- and that's actually among the least evil things this monster did.  As Coulter points out:

This week we will review some facts about the case that The New York Times edited out of its capacious articles on Lockett. This is the information that was not fit to print. Next week, we'll discuss the death penalty, with particular reference to Clayton Lockett. 

The main category of facts you won't read about Lockett in the Times, or elsewhere in the NFM (Non-Fox Media), is what he did to his victims -- which is to say, his last four victims. It may surprise you to learn that Locket had a long felony record. 

In 1999, Lockett and two confederates broke into Bobby Bornt's house to rob him. Bornt recognized Lockett as the man he had hired a few weeks earlier to cover a tattoo. 

Lockett savagely beat Bornt for 15 minutes with a shotgun, as Bornt's 9-month old son wailed in the next room. The three men bound Bornt's hands together with duct tape and set about searching his home for something to steal. Indeed, Lockett pushed Bornt off the couch, complaining that he was bleeding too much into what he called "my couch."

And then the details become so gross that I will not quote them.  Lockett was no loss to humanity.

The Execution Did Not Go Well

From April 30, 2014 USA Today:

Clayton Lockett, 38, struggled violently, groaned and writhed after lethal drugs were administered by Oklahoma officials Tuesday night, according to eyewitness accounts. State Corrections Director Robert Patton halted the Lockett's execution, citing vein failure that may have prevented the deadly chemicals from reaching Lockett. He eventually died of a heart attack.

Witnesses could see Lockett struggle before state officials closed off curtains blocking their view.

Unnecessary suffering should be avoided, I agree.  But it sounds like he got off light compared to his victim:

Lockett, who was convicted of shooting 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman and watching two accomplices bury her alive in 1999,... 

Another person that was scheduled for execution is this charming number:

Warner's execution had been set for 8 p.m. Tuesday. The 46-year-old was convicted of raping and killing his roommate's 11-month-old daughter in 1997. He has maintained his innocence.

Well, of course.  Who would confess to a crime that horrible?

Not A Big Fan Of The Death Penalty, But Articles Like This Make Me Reconsider...

October 17, 2013 USA Today reports:

A Florida prison accidentally released two inmates from a Panhandle prison who are convicted murderers, according to published reports.

An employee who answered the phone early Thursday at the Franklin Correctional Institution in Carrabelle, Fla., said she was not allowed to comment on the situation.

Charles Walker and Joseph Jenkins, both 34, apparently walked out of the facility separately "in accordance with Department of Corrections policy and procedure," CNN quotes Department of Corrections secretary Michael Crews as saying. "However, both of their releases were based on fraudulent modifications that had been made to court orders," Crews said.

Dead people seldom escape.