Botched execution in Oklahoma
- Thread starter dahliaclone
- Start date
I would rather be dead than live with say murdering 5 people. Maybe thats just because I realize murder is bad, but I would definitely say dying is better in the cases where we deem capital punishment a valid punishment.
I used to be for the death penalty but now I don't support it. Life is probably much worse for them in jail then dying.
I wish they would just kill them the same way the person they killed. Just do it by suprise. One day just walk in the cell and shoot them when they were not expecting it. Like in this guys case. Shoot him in the leg. Then go bury him in the ground while he is squirming. Just so he knows what he did to the other person and how it felt.
As to the methods, lethal injection is all but standard at this point. UT recently got rid of firing squad as an option, but a handful on death row are being grandfathered in on that. NH and WA still permit execution by hanging in limited circumstances. VA just executed by electrocution in 2013. But lethal injection is really the big majority.
Capital punishment itself is legal in 32 states right now, not including Iowa, as well as through the federal government (blue = death penalty is banned, red = permitted):
Looks to me like the states that don't have are of a more intelligent population.
We hear of people dieing from carbon monoxide poisoning at least once per year. Why not put the person sentenced to death in a closed room and pump it full of CO. Doesn't the person get really tired, and then just go to sleep and after enough exposure eventually die?
Seems like a humane way of execution.
Seems like a humane way of execution.
I'm a supporter of the death penalty. At least that it should be an option.
In regards to effectiveness of it as a deterrent, I'm not sure it matters. These guys are messed up enough and sure enough they are going to get away with it that I think the penalty could be a excruciating death over 10 years and it wouldn't stop them.
In regards to cost it seems like that's more of a system than anything else.
I can't say I feel that sorry for the witnesses though, at least not the voluntary ones. I understand there's lots of emotion involved, but if someone raped and murdered one of my loved ones I'd want him to get the death penalty, but I think I'd find a better use of my time than watching.
Does closure for the victim's family count?
Let's look at what this guy did. He broke into a home, took the father of the household captive and beat him, participated in the gang rape of a 19 year old family friend who happened to show up, kidnapped the 19 year old daughter of the household, shot her twice and then proceeded to bury her alive in a shallow grave.
I think they deserve to know that he's dead. I'm glad to know he's dead. I don't care how they do it or how terrible it goes wrong, just get it done. Burn him at the stake for all I give a ****.
Why don't they just pump heroin until their heart stops? It's a proven tool and they feel no pain.
I'd prefer something more barbaric like a prison island or ppv gov't sponsered "rehabilitation" events. Maybe monster trucks with giant dildos on the front could chase people around an arena.
I'd prefer something more barbaric like a prison island or ppv gov't sponsered "rehabilitation" events. Maybe monster trucks with giant dildos on the front could chase people around an arena.
1. The Constitution specifically bans cruel and/or unusual punishment
2. They obviously need to adhere to that and make it as swift as possible without undue suffering.
3. From what I heard on the news, this guy raped and murdered his girlfriend's 11 year old girl and watched while his accomplices buried her- still alive.
4. I hope it hurt.
2. They obviously need to adhere to that and make it as swift as possible without undue suffering.
3. From what I heard on the news, this guy raped and murdered his girlfriend's 11 year old girl and watched while his accomplices buried her- still alive.
4. I hope it hurt.
We used to import all our lethal drugs from Europe, but the EU recently banned their production. Now a lot of states are scrambling trying to find pharmaceutical companies willing to produce the stuff. Missouri had to delay several executions while they were locating a source.
There is also no evidence to suggest that states with the death penalty have lower murder rates. People who commit murder are not thinking rationally ("hmmm...should I murder this person or not?"). Say what you like about people deserving death, but capital punishment isn't improving society in anyway.
I get as angry/disgusted as anyone hearing about these crimes but I don't think it should translate into bloodlust. Wanting someone to die a horrible death (no matter what they have done) isn't a feeling we should celebrate.
There is also no evidence to suggest that states with the death penalty have lower murder rates. People who commit murder are not thinking rationally ("hmmm...should I murder this person or not?"). Say what you like about people deserving death, but capital punishment isn't improving society in anyway.
I get as angry/disgusted as anyone hearing about these crimes but I don't think it should translate into bloodlust. Wanting someone to die a horrible death (no matter what they have done) isn't a feeling we should celebrate.
Clayton Lockett, whose execution went wrong last night, was sentenced to death following the shocking murder of Stephanie Nieman, 19.
She was kidnapped, shot twice and buried alive in 1999 a month after she graduated from high school.
Lockett was involved in a botched raid on a house with two other men 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.
I am with you right here. Anyone remember what happened to that poor little girl up in Dayton? That ***** had a track record a mile long of sexual assaults, kidnapping, and all sorts of other crazy stuff. He was put in prison, released, and immediately offended again. He was put back in prison, released, and immediately offended again. Rinse and repeat. Had the state just put a bullet in that guys head and ended all of this they would have saved a lot of people a lot of trauma and heartbreak.... and saved a little girl's life.
Seriously... look at this timeline and tell me that this piece of garbage should have ever been released from prison. The system screwed the pooch on this one. A monster can't be rehabilitated.
May 15, 1971 — Michael James Klunder is born to Jimmy and Cheryl Klunder of Kensett.
The couple divorces 10 years later and Cheryl Klunder gets custody of Michael, the youngest of her three sons, and his two brothers. Three years later, however, their father files and receives custody of Michael and another son still at home.
One of his classmates calls him “real shy and a quiet kid ... a typical teenager.â€
Nov. 15, 1986 — Attacks Ev Leasure, 15, in Kensett. Klunder is taken into custody by juvenile authorities and is eventually found guilty of a delinquent act.
Klunder is sent to the Boys State Training School in Eldora, to Meyer Hall in Des Moines, to Bremwood (a juvenile home) in Waverly and to the Mental Health Center in Cherokee.
February 1988 — Klunder is released from juvenile detention. He returns to Mason City and moves in with his father and stepmother.
Feb. 22, 1989 — Klunder appears at the home of a Mason City co-worker and asks to use the phone, saying his car had stalled. When the co-worker offers to give him a ride home, Klunder accepts. As they walk to her car, he strikes her to the ground and tries to choke her. Court records show he choked her until she had trouble breathing, and had visible marks on her throat.
March 30, 1989 — Cerro Gordo District Court rules Klunder would be tried as an adult, citing the closeness to his 18th birthday and his record of assault. He is charged with assault with intent to commit serious injury.
He is also charged with second-degree burglary that had occurred on Feb. 15, 1989, but no other details of the burglary are released.
May 17, 1989 — Klunder is sentenced to five years in prison and two years for assault with intent to commit assault; sentences to be served concurrently; the sentence came after a plea bargain.
June 15, 1989 — Judge agrees to reconsider Klunder’s prison sentence.
Sept. 16, 1989 — Judge Paul Riffel cancels the reconsideration hearing. He cites a report from prison officials that says while Klunder is doing well, he was in the midst of a sexual offender treatment program and should be able to complete it.
February 1991 — Klunder is released from Mount Pleasant Treatment Center.
Dec. 16, 1991 — Klunder is now living at the Lantern Park Apartments in Charles City and working at Comprehensive Systems recycling center.
But he loses his job on the morning of Dec. 16.
“He was really depressed, said he needed friends. He was really blue,†said Kristin Hesse, one of Klunder’s neighbors.
Klunder becomes the main suspect in the kidnapping of two, 3-year-old girls, who were taken from the front yard of their Charles City day care.
Both are found later that day in a garbage receptacle in Worth County. One of the children had been choked hard enough to raise concerns about her health. Other residents at the complex point to Klunder as a potential suspect.
He is questioned but he becomes uncooperative. When police try to find him again, they find he has fled the city in his 1982 Honda Civic.
He is wanted on two counts of first-degree kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Dec. 24, 1991 — Klunder is found in a Houston, Texas, bus station. Authorities are called there after being tipped off by a relative. His car is found abandoned on a road near Tallahassee, Fla.
Jan. 3, 1992 — Klunder is extradited to Iowa.
Jan. 4, 1992 — Klunder is held on a $1 million bond in Floyd County District Court.
Jan. 10, 1992 — News is released that Klunder is a suspect in an assault on a 21-year-old Rudd woman, in an incident that occurred on Dec. 15, 1991 — one day before the kidnappings of the two girls.
The woman reports she was driving on Highway 18 in early morning Dec. 15, when a man she identified as Klunder drove behind her, flashing his lights.
She pulled over and he approached the vehicle, saying she had a broken tail light. She got out of the vehicle to check the light and Klunder grabbed her, assaulted her and forced her into his car. A passing car saw her waving frantically for help, and started following Klunder’s car. When Klunder saw a car following him, he pushed the woman from the moving vehicle and drove off.
Klunder is charged in Cerro Gordo County District Court with third-degree kidnapping and assault with intent to commit sexual assault.
Feb. 24, 1992 — Change of venue on the kidnapping charges in the Charles City case is granted and trial moved from Floyd County to Bremer County.
Feb. 26, 1992 — Change of venue is denied in Cerro Gordo County on the charges stemming from the Dec. 15 incident that involved the Rudd woman.
April 15, 1992 — Klunder’s trial begins in Cerro Gordo County on the alleged abduction of the Rudd woman. His attorney claims his arrest came as a result of mistaken identity. The woman, it is said, found Klunder in a line-up and identified him during the trial. A question is raised about the color of his vehicle — it was blue; she said it was a white car — but that apparently does not bother the jury. He is found guilty on April 17.
May 16, 1992 — Klunder’s son is born.
May 29, 1992 — Klunder is sentenced to 11 years in prison on the Cerro Gordo County kidnapping charge and one year on the assault. He maintains his innocence.
Aug. 13, 1992 — Klunder reaches a plea agreement on the kidnapping of the two girls. He will serve 30 years.
Sept. 18, 1992 — Klunder is sentenced to 30 years in prison on reduced charges of third-degree kidnapping and one count of willful injury.
All told, he is sentenced to 41 years in prison during the 1992 trials.
Dec. 29, 1993 — A request made by Klunder to the Iowa Court of Appeals to dismiss his conviction on the Cerro Gordo County charges, citing sensational pre-trial publicity, is denied.
Dec. 25, 2011 — Klunder is paroled, having served 18 years of his 41-year sentence.
May 20, 2013 — Klunder entices a 12-year-old girl and 15-year-old Kathlynn Shepard of Dayton to get in his truck when he tells him he can get them lawn-mowing jobs in the summer. According to Hughes, he said he would give them a ride to their homes so they could ask their parents’ permission. He drives them to a remote area.
The 12-year-old escapes from Klunder. Klunder commits suicide and is later found in his truck.
Friday, June 7 — Shepard’s body is found in the Des Moines River. An autopsy shows she died of sharp and blunt-force trauma wounds.
The term, "cruel and unusual punishment" makes zero sense to me. Let's all make sure these horrible people who rape and kill and ruin lives are given fair and humane treatment.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/death-penalty-study-4-percent-defendants-innocent
This alone should be reason enough not to have the death penalty legal.
I dont believe it is ever acceptable to execute an innocent person. I also dont believe our justice system will ever be perfect in that regard. Therefore i dont believe the death penalty should be legal,as much as some of the most guilty might deserve it. Not as a merciful act towards the worst among us, but because of the innocents that do get caught up in the system.
This alone should be reason enough not to have the death penalty legal.
I dont believe it is ever acceptable to execute an innocent person. I also dont believe our justice system will ever be perfect in that regard. Therefore i dont believe the death penalty should be legal,as much as some of the most guilty might deserve it. Not as a merciful act towards the worst among us, but because of the innocents that do get caught up in the system.
Prison is supposed to be more about separating dangers from society than about punishment and wherever possible (some people are obviously unredeemable) rehabilitating them to be contributing members of society. Unfortunately most people seem to have forgotten that.
I don't buy this rehabilitation nonsense.
Records show that about 77% of felony criminals are repeat offenders with one prior arrest. Of these criminals 35% of them have 10 or more prior arrests.
