In Oklahoma last night we were unable to kill someone – effectively. Apparently a man named Clayton Lockett was slated to die from a lethal injection. This man was convicted of the murder of Stephanie Nieman, 19.
Lockett, with two other men, was involved in a botched raid on a house belonging to Bobby Bornt, when Miss Neiman and another 19-year-old woman walked in. Reports from the time said that Mr Bornt owed Lockett money and that he was tied up and beaten during the ordeal.
Miss Neiman’s friend was dragged into the house and hit in the face with a shotgun. Under duress, the friend then called Miss Neiman into the home and she was also hit in the face with the gun. Her friend was raped by all three men before they were taken to a rural part of Kay County, Oklahoma. Lockett told them that he was going to kill them all but shot Miss Neiman twice when she refused to give her keys and pickup’s alarm code. When she was shot dead, she was stood in a shallow grave that had been dug by one of Lockett’s accomplices, Shawn Mathis. He told Lockett that Miss Neiman was still alive, but Lockett ordered Mathis to bury her – alive!
Oklahoma apparently tried to inject him with some drug cocktail which was supposed to humanely end his life. A vein burst in his body and he died from a massive heart attack forty minutes later.
This causes me to wonder a couple of things:
I have always wondered why we spend money each year paying companies to legally destroy illegal drugs which no longer need be held in impound following a court case. Why do we not simply give the convicted murderer a massive drug overdose of this stuff, instead of paying for buying drugs to kill him with?
Secondly, why do we not abolish the concept of cruel and unusual punishment? Those of you who have read the first chapter of Snowfall have an idea of my position on this issue. Since part of the point of punishment is to discourage others from following in their footsteps, it would only seem logical that we make the method of putting convicted individuals to death to be as extremely cruel and unusual as we can come up with. George Carlin once joked that we should bring back the guillotine. He joked to make it more exciting we should do it at the top of a sort of huge plinko board and that the head could then bounce down into a numbered slot which could be used for a national lottery of sorts. Sick – but kind of funny – you have to admit. In India at one point the convicted was tied down with his head on a large block. He would then be forced to watch as an elephant was led down a very long road towards him. Once it finally lumbered down the street over the next several minutes it would place its massive foot on the guy’s head and squash it like a melon.
Lastly, this is Oklahoma. There are more guns in this state then people. I know ammo prices have gone sky high lately, but honestly how much does a box of 45 caliber shells cost? I’m pretty sure that a gun of that size, when pointed directly at the brain pan of some guy’s noggin, can pretty effectively end a life in a very short fashion.
