Double Death! World Appalled Shocker!

I will make this as brief as I can because my thoughts on the death penalty are well known by now and I have numerous articles in my blogs about the subject. It does get tiresome, even for a morbid old ghoul like me.
Last week (21st September) Georgia executed Troy Davis. (The Lone Star State, Texas, also offed a racist scumbag but due to Mr Davis he was largely forgotten, as racists should be.) And what a circus did it turn out to be! Largely due to the fact that thousands believed Troy to be innocent. The picture below will show how big of a hulabaloo it stirred up.


A protester in typical pose

Without going into the guilt/innocence issue, this case brought death penalty debates back to the headlines the world over. Even our (UK) radio stations were talking about it, which was interesting as ever since we fell headlong into the European Union's clutches I got the sense that discussing capital punishment was verbotten.
Anyway as usual most of the news (including some US ones) are screaming that execution is a barbaric form of punishment, fit only for the history books and Hollywood. And our lovely British press went along with it.
Excuse me but how Britain and the rest of Europe can slate America is beyond me. (And I am not some blind star spangled supporter who believes nonsense that we were saved by the good ol' US of A in WWII). No this is about Justice, and about how we seem to have binned it while our friends across the Atlantic still believe its actually worth something.
Allow me to make the facts clear, not because I think you dear readers are stupid but to show how good it looks for the United States and how bad it looks for us namby pamby death-is-uncivilsed countries. Imagine both inmates were 100% guilty just for sake of argument. Last wednesday then a racist and a cop killer were put to death in America. They will be no more. They will have no more glimpse of sunshine, or have any feel good endorphins running through their veins on those good days (everyone has good days even in cells). It is at End for these two. There are no more days, good or bad.
Now take a quick imaginary trip over to Britain (imaginary flights are always First Class and theres no jetlag). We are letting murderers and rapists go free after very short sentences almost every other day. One of the 'men' who took part in the murder of Baby Peter is now free after three years and has been pictured by many newspapers (the same ones bleating about the 'barbaric death penalty') wandering in parks, sipping on bottled beer, no care in the world. I believe this cruel thug is only 39, so he has plenty of sunshine left to bask in, plenty of chilled beers to down. For his victim, well Baby Peter's days are no more.
So who are the barbarians here? America? Or Britain (and the rest of the EU)? I would rather have the death of racists and cop killers on my conscience than the death of children and innocence. Sleep easy America and other death penalty countries. Keep a hold of that Justice.

The Reaper At The Hollwood Gates

First of all NO, this is not another rant towrad the movie industry. This is a list, a list of DEATH! Mwahahaha!! *Coughs*
Excuse my lame attempts at sound effects. Now as im a rather eager ghoul and proud of it! I will attempt to name all of the films and plays that have featured execution scenes.

1. Amongst Barbarians

This is a play by Michael Wall and was probably the first time I witnessed an execution scene on television. The tv adaptation featured David Jason and Lee Ross (who played one of the lads who was eventually hanged for drug smuggling.) It has possibly one of the most detailed hanging scenes ever put on film. I sat mesmerised as the director pans in on the two guys standing on the trapdoor, the white cloths over their heads being sucked in and out as they breathed their last.

2. Shocker

Horror flick by Wes Craven. This movie has one of my favourite tagline EVER ~ On October 2nd at 6:45am mass murderer Horace Pinker was put to death. Now he's REALLY mad.

3. A Letter from Death Row

1998 film by Poison singer Bret Michaels. He wrote, directed and starred in it. Ok it wasn't very good but no problem, it counts.

4. Let Him Have It

Film about Derek Bentley starring Christoper Ecclestone. This is a good film and Ecclestone gives a fine performance as Bentley which even had me rooting for him eventhough I knew he was going to swing. Me hard hearted? Never.


Horac is frying tonight folks!

5. I Want To Live!

Actress Susan Hayward won a Oscar for her role as Barbera Graham in this 1958 movie. The flick suggests Graham was actually innocent but then most of this type of film do.

6. The Chamber

The movie based on the John Grisham novel, starring the marvellous Gene Hackman. I think the finale is pretty accurate as to how being gassed to death goes down.

7. The Green Mile

Another great film, this time based on the writings of Stephen King. I was a pretty latecomer to this, having only first seen it in 2010. A rare exception where a good film is made from King's books.

8. Dead Man Walking

Probably the most famous film based on death row.

Just another reason to show this photo of Ms Sarandon's fantastic breasts

9. Sin City

The scene where Marv (Micky Rourke) dies in the electric chair.

10. Pierrepoint

Starring Timothy Spall as Britain's finest hangman. This film showed Albert Pierrepoint to be a sort of 'gentleman executioner', taking care of the condemned's body after sentence had been carried out. Wonderful little film.

Let 'Em Eat Rope

This is not another piece where I swear the merits (even virtues) of the death penalty. Everyone by now knows that I believe in nothing else but DEATH for murderers so there is little point dredging up that severely flogged horse. (If ever a horse deserved being put out to stud, it is this knackered mule.)
This is about the METHOD used, or not being used as is more and more becoming the way. Back when Britain hanged its killers (instead of letting them loose to cause more mayhem after a paltry sentence as we seem to do now) the sole method was 'hanged by the neck until you are dead.' We were damned effective at it too with executioners like the great Pierrepoint, getting the condemned from his/her cell to the scaffold and hung in a mere 7 seconds. No last family visits or television interviews from death row, or a soft media attempting to show the killer in a forgiving light. No hoo-ha or trumpeting and releasing of the inmates last meal.
And without the circus, or more to the point without having a choice of different methods, the criminals went swifly to meet their punishment. Fast forward to today, if we look at the United States we see that this is not now the case. There the murderer is allowed appeal after appeal and can halt their date with death with the smallest of details. Today (26th October, 2010) is a perfect example. A brutal killer was due to die but now a judge in has blocked the scheduled execution saying 'more time is needed to consider the inmate's challenge of the state's use of a knockout drug from an unidentified source.'
Now I am not going to sit here and scoff at America's justice system and pick faults with it because that would be ridiculous coming from someone living in a place like Britain. I wish ALL the US States were like Texas who have no hesitation in putting murderers in their rightful place (ie the grave.) However the process could and should be less of a hassle and if it were then even more inmates would be pushing up daffodils.
It all got messy when people decided they wanted to be more 'humane' in putting the condemned to death. Other methods than the noose were looked into all in the eagerness to sanitise the death penalty.

Step this way

First up was the electric chair and while 'Old Sparky' was accepted after a shaky start (and is now an American icon) still it wasn't enough. Gas chambers were also popular for a time but were soon relegated when lethal injection arrived in prison death chambers. Ah lethal injection! Now this sounded like the deal maker, just what the public wanted to satisfy their need for justice, while at the same time making the execution method look no worse than visiting the dentist.
So in came the chemicals (sodium thiopental, pancuronium and potassium chloride) to wash the States hands of the more violent noose or chair. And now it has been reduced to one chemical (sodium thiopental) to put the inmate in his rightful place. (Im using the masculine 'his' purely because more men are put to death than women, at least in America.)
All this has played straight into the hands of the criminal because the more 'fiddly' the method, the more chance it has of breaching one of the prisoners rights. They can argue that the chemicals take too long to act or that they are allergic to them, and even make the case that lethal injection would be impossible due to prolonged drug abuse while in the free world. There are a whole manner of ways and exscuses to delay getting the fatal jab and sometimes avoid receiving it all .
I cannot help to think that the United States would have done well to stick to Great Britains near (not total) flawless method. Heck even the firing squad (which don't forget America also employed) had less things to go wrong than the needle. But let us not stray off the point and argue effectiveness. The simple fact of the matter is that every country which still sentences its murderers to death ought to use the gallows. It serves two important uses, namely that it is both swift in dealing out death and shows the rest of the world that YES death is on offer for perpetrators of violent crimes and NO we don't care a damn who knows it.
It is honest and upfront and far better than skulking behind curtains trying to dig for a useable vein because doing it that way only makes the watching world believe that while death is on the books, it is not truly comfortable in actually carrying the sentence out.
I for one am convinced that should it carry on like it is now then executions will become a thing of the past and when that happens all is lost. The way forward is erecting scaffolds and not being afraid of doing so. They needn't be public, just the knowledge they are used would be sufficient. A simple ONE WAY exit to the trapdoor without all this faffing around with different methods and chemicals. Doing it that way is sure way to get sidetracked and lose grip on the law.