Jeffrey Landrigan was executed yesterday by the Arizona State Department of Corrections. So why isn't the world celebrating justice served for Chester Dean Dyer?
They're too busy debating whether the drugs in the needle stuck into Landrigan's arm were approved by the FDA.
Oh, America, you love hypocrisy, don't you? There was a state-sanctioned murder ordered by the Arizona Supreme Court and attended by members of the press. And you're still debating whether it was humane?
Let's break it down.
Jeffrey Landrigan is dead.
He doesn't feel any pain today.
In fact he had it much better than Dyer, who was found dead in his apartment in December 1989, strangled by Landrigan with an electrical cord. The two may or may not have been sexually involved. At least Landrigan had a stranger doing the dirty deed to him.
So what's with all the controversy? Anesthetic sodium thiopental has been in short supply in the states, making it hard out there for states who want to be rid of some death row inmates. The drug in Landrigan's death needle came from overseas -- the UK specifically.
Because it had not been approved by the American government for use in lethal injection cases, Landrigan claimed it could cause him pain. Landrigan's attorneys tried to keep him alive with the claim that the drugs violated his constitutional rights to be "free from cruel and unusual punishment."
That's word for word the argument used against the death penalty as a whole, once prompting the Supreme Court to suspend its use because the justices deemed putting people to death in our prisons was indeed a violation of the Eighth Amendment (that's the one that prohibits the government from imposing excessive bail or fines and uses the words "cruel and unusual punishment").
It's back on the table, of course, sanctioned by the feds as an OK way for states to deal with the real bad boys. And so Landrigan wasn't challenging his inevitable death. Just his death by this particular drug.
Ahem, hypocrisy. Ahem.
Lethal injection has been found to cause pain. Even using FDA-approved drugs. And last we checked, it causes death -- which ranks a bit higher on the "OMG, not me" scale.
So does it matter what drug they use? They're still dead.
Image via Arizona Department of Corrections
This Hot Dad Wants to Do Your Ironing
This Hot Dad Wants to Cook You Dinner
This Hot Dad Cooks AND Does the Dishes
Kanye West is Gay?! 
Comments 10
I think this is stupid. Sorry, but I don't care whether the drugs were legal or not. As the author stated, he's dead-and I really don't care how he died. He got what he deserved, as the justice system sentenced him, and that's all there is to it. It sounds like they're trying to look for an excuse to make him into a martyr after death to me.
Does it really matter if it caused him pain? Did the man he murdered not feel pain? i am all for rights, but if you take someones life, then you should also have your life taken away from you. If people knew they would absolutely die a horrible death because of there actions, maybe murder wouldn't be rampant in our country. Living your life on death row isn't a piece of cake, but its better than what some people have in this country. Homeless people, starving children would love a roof over there head and three meas a day. Did it cause him pain? I for one, couldn't care less if he was caused some pain!!
Why do the criminals get all the rights and the victims get none? The man that he killed didn't get a choice in the way he was killed and it certainly wasn't legal!! If murderers were executed in the most painful way possible, maybe that would deter them from killing in the first place. But NOOOO, let's give them 3 meals a day, cable tv and a chance to exercise AND get a college education, all at the expense of taxpayers!!! The appeals process is an absolute joke. It costs so much money to keep these monsters alive while they exhaust their appeals. A short rope and a tall tree is cheap. So is a bullet to the head. It's also pretty cheap to chain them to a stump in a swamp and let the gators and snakes take care of them.
Those of you that have sympathy for this maniac and others like him, and think they can be rehabilitated, obviously you've never lost anyone close to you to a murder. I have, and let me tell you, I'd have no problem at all putting a bullet in the head of the monster who ran up behind my friend and put 2 bullets in HER head!! He's sitting in prison wasting tax money, while her 3 children have no mother.
my husband is in prison. he doesnt get three meals a day, he's wasting away. he doesnt have cable tv. he's not allowed in a yard. he doesnt have a college education. he doesnt have conversations or touch. and im out here alone and im wasting away too. i have lost two people to murder and i would never support the death penalty. i would never wish what ive gone through on anyone.
Prison isn't supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be a punishment.