Issues with the wrong drugs for lethal injection executions have raised voices in favor of death row inmates’ demand to know the drugs that would kill them, but have the actions that got them here ever been humane?

1. Do Committers of Inhuman Murders Deserve
Humane Executions?
Issues with the wrong drugs for lethal injection executions have raised voices in
favor of death row inmates’ demand to know the drugs that would kill them, but
have the actions that got them here ever been humane?
The recent issues with states using wrong drugs for lethal injection, resulting in
agonizing deaths for inmates, have gathered momentum in debates. With states
being determinedly secretive about the source of their drugs, death row inmates
have drawn on the Eighth Amendment to file lawsuits demanding to know what
drugs are being used for their execution.
The shortage of the tried and tested drug thiopental and then pentobarbital has left
states scurrying to zero in on alternatives. Irrespective of the legal stance, which has
varied between pro-state and pro-death row inmate, the ethical questions raised are
confusing. While inhuman deaths cannot be tolerated in a civilized society, do the
death row inmates who’ve themselves performed heinous and violent crimes have a
right to demand total peace and calm during their execution?
Does Jose Villegas Deserve Sympathy?
While the violence, pain and discomfort with lethal injection executions due to the
use of some unapproved or untested drugs has raised eyebrows and advocated a
need for reform, much of our sympathy for death row inmates seems unfounded
when we consider the violence with which they’ve executed their crimes. Take the
case of convicted 39-year-old murderer Jose Villegas who was recently executed in
Texas – this man had brutally stabbed his 23-year old ex-girlfriend, her 3-year-old
son, and her mother in 2001 at their home in Corpus Christi. They had been stabbed
more than 19 times.
Cases such as the above rely heavily on the verbal and material evidence presented
in court, and the transcripts of court proceedings available through accurate and
reliable legal transcription. Let us look at the course of this case.
The Mental Impairment Argument
Villegas’ attorneys placed arguments that the slayings were a result of a condition
they had called “intermittent explosive disorder” which caused bouts of
uncontrollable rage. That argument did not stand in spite of a defense psychiatrist
testifying to it. Lawyers also filed an appeal on the day before the execution
requesting the Supreme Court to stop it. The reason they cited was that his IQ was
only 59.

2. It only served to delay the punishment though, strangely, four among the nine
justices mentioned in the court order that they would have provided him a pardon.
This argument was based on the strength of a Supreme Court order which prohibits
mentally impaired individuals from being executed. An IQ level of 70 is generally
considered by courts to be the threshold for mental impairment.
Argument Fails before Texas Attorney General
The IQ finding was disapproved by the office of the Texas Attorney General since
previous IQ examinations of the convict had not revealed any kind of mental
impairment and the latest IQ test that was conducted after the execution date was
revealed posed a possibility that Villegas was deliberately performing poorly. In the
ten years that Villegas’ lawyers had for raising impairment claims, they came up with
that only a few days before the execution.
Villegas was executed by pentobarbital injection. The Department of Corrections
officials have not consented to reveal the drug provider, and the Supreme Court has
approved the stance. After the pentobarbital was injected, Villegas reported to feel a
burning sensation in his body. After several gasps he began breathing quietly and
was pronounced dead 11 minutes after the injection – the seventh prisoner to be
executed in 2014 in the state of Texas.
Texas has had over a third of American executions since the reinstatement of death
penalty by the Supreme Court in 1976. The state has rendered capital punishment to
514 people since then.
Villegas’ Physical Agony Not Big Enough
Though in some of the executions the pentobarbital bought from compounding
pharmacies has caused greater or longer periods of physical agony before death,
Villegas could be said to have undergone some agony. But many people believe that
it is much lesser than the physical and emotional agony Villegas’ victims went
through as he repeatedly stabbed them, and also the trauma the relatives of the
victims undergo to this day.
District attorney Mark Skurka who was the prosecutor of Villegas was shocked at the
contrasting atmosphere of the execution chamber and the scene of the crime. It
would have been a terrifying environment for Villegas’ victims including the three-
year old child who all received stabs after stabs while in the execution chamber
Villegas just gasped for air before everything became calm in a little over a minute.
How the Gruesome Murders Were Committed
By Villegas’ own admission, he arrived at the home of his ex-girlfriend at around 5
AM. Both consumed cocaine worth around $200. His girlfriend’s mother, who had

3. warned her against welcoming Villegas home, then came and ordered him to leave at
which Villegas retaliated by stabbing and killing her first and then stabbing his 23-
year-old ex-girlfriend and her son in the bedroom.
Villegas then whisked a television from the home, drove away in his ex-girlfriend’s
car and then pawned the television to buy more cocaine. Villegas claims he wanted
to commit suicide by cocaine overdose after returning to her home, but on seeing
the cops there he fled. The blood bathed bodies were found by the 23-year-old
woman’s father. Villegas’ execution was witnessed by six of the victims’ relatives
who felt justice had been served though it was quite late.
According to the district attorney, Villegas did not try to make peace with the victims’
family after the tragedy, or even apologize.
The Rare Strain of Mercy for Death Row Prisoners
A silver lining in this cloud of mindless murder and terribly affected loved ones is the
willingness or even ardent pleading by some families of murder victims to do away
with the death penalty for the murderer. An example of this is the Colorado case
where the parents of a murder victim have pleaded the court to save the life of his
murderer. Though we all - and certainly the law does - think that murderers deserve
no sympathy, that thought process could be flawed when loved ones of the victims
themselves step in actively demanding sympathy for the criminal.
Surely this is the only respite death row inmates are entitled to receive for the chaos
they’ve caused to the lives of others. Villegas’ brutality though was much more than
what’s humanly forgivable or forgettable. It’s said you just can’t get away with
murder, but probably what’s truer is that you just can’t get away with brutality.