Patterico's Pontifications

12/14/2005

Graphic Details

Filed under: Crime — Patterico @ 6:54 am



Our California legislature is considering a proposal to postpone all executions in this state for years. My attention was grabbed by this bit at the end of the L.A. Times story on the proposal:

Among those invited to testify before the Assembly Public Safety Committee next month in favor of Koretz’s bill, AB 1121, is Donald Heller, a Sacramento attorney who wrote California’s original death penalty initiative. A former prosecutor, Heller said he has since come to believe application of the death penalty cannot help but be discriminatory and erroneous.

He said that the graphic details of execution — such as the 12-minute difficulty prison officials had in finding a suitable vein in Williams’ arm for the lethal injection last night, while the condemned man winced in pain — might turn more people away from it.

Huh? A 12-minute search for a vein constitutes “graphic details”?

I got your “graphic details” right here:

Williams bragged to his brother Wayne about killing [Albert] Owens. Williams said, “you should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him.” Williams then made gurgling or growling noises and laughed hysterically about Owens’ death. (TT 2195-2197).

. . .

As [deputies] entered, they saw Yen-I Yang lying on a sofa. He was “soaked with blood,” “gasping for air, and making gurgling noises.” (TT 1501). They also saw the bloodied body of Tsai-Shai Yang. She was making “gurgling noises” and “gasping for air,” with “her knees drawn up under her, and her face down on the floor,” as if she had been forced to bow down before being killed. (TT 1502). Lastly, the deputies found the body of Yee-Chen Lin lying on the hallway floor.

Yee-Chen Lin was shot once in the upper left face area at a distance of a few feet. Despite the truly horrific nature of the wound Stanley Williams inflicted upon her, Yee-Chen also clung to life. She was transported from the scene by paramedics to Centinela Hospital where she died at 7:36 a.m.

You want “graphic details”? You just read about the awful way that Yee-Chen Lin died. If you have any doubts about your ability to handle looking at a picture of her corpse, then please don’t click through to the next link. But if you can handle it, look at very, very disturbing picture of Yee-Chen, and think about the fact that she lived for over two hours after being shot in the face. Then we’ll talk about “graphic details.”

And Tookie “winced in pain”? The poor dear!

“What occurred in San Quentin last night was in my view somewhat grotesque,” Heller said Tuesday. “Maybe what they should do is televise executions.”

If they ran executions the way I want them to — placing the entire focus of the execution on the victim(s) and what the defendant did to them — I’d have no problem with that, at all.

11 Responses to “Graphic Details”

  1. The pro-Tookie vigil (AM UPDATE)

    I don’t really think anything I write would do the following photos (from a pro-Tookie Williams vigil on Dec. 12) justice. Methinks they speak for themselves.
    (Thanks to FT for the heads up)
    AM Update: Patterico blogs about a LA Times articl…

    Sister Toldjah (3e6668)

  2. I agree … let’s televise the executions … and charge for them on pay per view. Maybe that will help California’s debt. However, a simple I.V. as the method of execution will be too boring for t.v. … even with a measley 15 minute search for a vein.

    MOG (765f1b)

  3. I’m down with public hangings, myself. Maybe the jury should choose.

    The only quick and painless methods I can think of involve explosives….

    Kevin Murphy (9982dd)

  4. It used to take me longer than that to find a vein as a 3rd year.I didn’t know I was so cruel.

    lincoln (808e76)

  5. Bring back the gas chamber. Forget the cyanide, just displace the oxygen with nitrogen or anyother inert gas of the criminal’s choice. Dozens of workers die every year in enclosed spaces because of oxygen depletion, and it is painless, that is why the workers don’t know they are dying.

    Walter E. Wallis (b2dd68)

  6. “The best lack all conviction and the worst argue with passionate intensity.” — Yeats –. I can see no rational argument against the death penalty and many in its favor. In the end, though, it’s a political question, as many must have thought as they wondered whether the Governator would grant clemency. If this stuff sells, why not try it? Who said “nobody ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public”? Personally, I am glad to no longer breathe the same air as Tookie Williams.

    nk (2ab789)

  7. Two points.. I say Kill him! Beat him! Burn him! and hang him until he is dead, dead, dead!

    Second lets make sure we all say Merry Christmas when we great someone this year. I think its really important we keep the spirit of Christ in Christmas!

    Finally, God Bless everyone, especially my hero George Bush a true example of Christian virtue to us all.

    BushLover (8ea405)

  8. dear bush lover,

    thanks for the drive by. we always appreciate well-thought-out responses such as yours, which avoid the hard truths.

    here, let me list them:

    tookie killed 4 people. 4! that’s four people who were completely innocent (but of course, not photogenic, especially with those awful shotgun blast holes in their faces. but never mind them, right!)

    tookie was convicted by a jury of killing these four people

    tookie’s conviction was upheld by the courts all the way up to the supreme court

    tookie merely paid the price for his crimes.

    let’s hope you have a merry winter holiday. we don’t have to worry about tookie’s sad life any more.

    steve miller (60a854)

  9. especially my hero George Bush a true example of Christian virtue to us all.

    George Bush has no Christian virtues.

    bob (fbf439)

  10. what about the people that Bush murdered by his deliberate lies about WMDs in Iraq? What do you tell a mother whose son died believing the liar when he said there were WMDs in Iraq after he deliberatly hid evidence to the contrary? When will he pay for his crimes?

    Spectator_of_folly (8ea405)

  11. There would be less support for the anti-death penalty operatives if the photographs of the murdered victims were widely distributed.

    I doubt this would happen because the defense would argue that the photos would taint the jury pool.

    This is the same as not publishing the terrorists torturous acts.

    Davod (ede134)


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