The end of life is not something I like to think about, having held the hand of my best friend as he passed away. During films, in particular, I am no longer able to view the final moments of life without losing control of myself.
The horrid memories inevitably surge and erupt in panic, in tears, in the recollection of the true tragedy--we all must die, and some of us must die by enduring great pain.
The United States currently permits individuals deemed worthy of dying to be killed--but they are not supposed to endure a painful death in order for the judicial mandate to be carried out.
But there was great pain yesterday for Joseph Clark, who was put to death by the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility by lethal injection. There was moaning and crying. There was agony.
86 minutes worth.
Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time.
So said John Coffey's character in the film version of Stephen King's The Green Mile. He uttered these words to his compassionate executor, who asked how he could possibly justify killing one of God's miracles. John Coffey was an anomaly--an exceptional character, emblematic of each of us, for we are all miracles of life and living, whether or not we've lived long or lived well.
I do not know Joseph Clark, nor much about his past. I do know that he was convicted to death for murdering two people in Toledo, Ohio, in 1984. And I know that prior to his execution, he spoke at length of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of the importance for America's youth to stay away from drugs, for Mr. Clark believed that drugs had led his own life astray.
And it would be drugs that would take his life away, in the same cruel way they would have outside of the prison walls--slowly, agonizingly.
From today's report in The Columbus Dispatch.:
Ohio's lethal-injection process, which had worked, if not flawlessly, at least without major problems on 20 previous occasions, went awry yesterday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville. As the chemical began flowing, Clark, a longtime IV drug user before he went to prison, raised his head and upper body off the table several times.
"It don't work. It don't work," he said five times, according to media witnesses.
Medical technicians returned and the curtain was closed at 10:37 a.m., blocking the view of authorized witnesses, who later heard what they described as "moaning, crying out and guttural noises."
It took almost an hour and a half, but by 11:26 a.m., the 57-year-old killer from Toledo was dead as planned. It took two tries, and much of the work was conducted behind the curtain, preventing the official witnesses from viewing the process of inserting needles into Clark's veins after one vein collapsed, or "blew out."
Clark's execution, which started at 10 a.m., was troubled almost from the beginning. Prison medical technicians were able to attach the needle to a vein only in his left arm, not both arms as is the standard procedure.
Despite the lengthy execution process, prison officials said Clark did not appear to be in any pain. Eventually, he went to sleep as the curtain was opened at 11:17 a.m. He could be heard snoring as the second, successful attempt to end his life began.
"One hour, 26 minutes is unacceptable, inhumane, and another indication of a flawed, unnecessary death system that is irreparably broken," said Sister Alice Gerdeman, chairwoman of Ohioans to Stop Executions.
She renewed the call to Gov. Bob Taft to declare an "an immediate moratorium on executions and take an honest look at fair alternatives to the death penalty."
Dr. Jonathan I. Groner, trauma medical director at Children's Hospital and a longtime opponent of physician involvement in executions, said Clark's execution was "clearly botched."
"There 90 minutes of torture and discomfort for this guy."
The New York Times also has a story on the execution.
Following his passing, the wife of one of Mr. Clark's victims had showed no sympathy.
Joseph Clark lived 22 years too long.
I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it.
In the wake of this, I am despondent. But I must persist, we must all persist in fighting. We must do it anyway.
Do It Anyway
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.