TOP 100 SCIENCE SITES
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| Observatory: When Mountain Lions Hunt, They Prey on the Weak Mountain lions seem to actively seek out mule deer infected with chronic wasting disease. feeds.nytimes.com |
Mammoth dung clue to extinction A study of mammoth dung is helping unravel the mystery of what caused the great mammals to die out. news.bbc.co.uk |
Shut down Ohio's machinery of death | Karen Torley Ohio has killed Kenneth Biros, a man I have written to for many years. How can a civilised country do this in the name of justice?After a botched attempt to execute a prisoner in the US state of Ohio in September caused international outrage, you might have thought Ohio would hesitate before pressing ahead with another execution. Not a bit of it.The US state that condemned Edinburgh's Kenny Richey to die and came desperately close to killing him is unfazed that its prison staff subjected an inmate called Romell Broom to a two-hour ordeal where they repeatedly shoved a lethal injection needle into various parts of his body – thigh, ankle, feet, muscles and bone. They've done it again, only this time piloting a new lethal injection on a death row inmate called Kenneth Biros, someone I've written to for many years.The variation is that they injected Biros with a large dose of a chemical called thiopental sodium, an anaesthetic. Mindful of repeating their earlier mistake, the state also had ready a "back-up procedure" in case a vein couldn't be found: the idea was that they could inject a combination of two chemicals (midazolam and hydromorphone) into a large muscle, like the thigh muscle. Some might say: so what? They botched one execution but that doesn't mean they should cancel all others. Well, after campaigning for justice in Kenny Richey's case for over a decade I can tell you that Ohio's killing machinery is not fit even for its already macabre purpose. Year after year Ohio botches executions.For example in 2007 the execution of Christopher Newton took more than two hours and 10 attempts. It went on so long that Newton was given a toilet break. Meanwhile, in 2006 the execution of Joseph Clark took an hour and a half. After he was injected he sat up and said: "It ain't working". He begged prison staff for a tablet to end his suffering.This is the point. Execution by lethal injection is supposed to be "humane and clinical". Ohio promises a "quick death". But there is nothing humane, quick or painless about any of it. Even when lethal injection "works" there's evidence that its cocktail of drugs paralyses the prisoner, trapping them in what Amnesty International calls a "chemical straitjacket". They're conscious, in pain, but unable to move a muscle or cry out.Leaving even this aside, prisoners taken into the execution chamber in the US have often been on death row for 20-plus years. This is psychological torture, plain and simple.Many prisoners will go to the very edge of the precipice before getting last-minute reprieves. In Kenny Richey's case he was once just 24 hours from death in the electric chair and prison guards were gloating about how he was going to "fry". Heartrendingly, he'd already said goodbye to his mother by phone: only then did the stay of execution notice come through. How can any civilised country put people through this in the name of justice?During my campaigning for Kenny I spoke to many of the men Ohio has since executed. Some were mentally ill. Some "volunteered" to die to escape the horror of life on death row.In 1999 a mentally ill man called Wilford Berry was executed, the first judicial killing in Ohio since the early 60s. I wrote to Berry begging him to reconsider: I reminded him that there were people like Kenny Richey on Ohio's death row who were probably innocent – Berry's death might open the floodgates. Sister Helen Prejean made several visits to the prison saying the same thing. It was all to no avail and the floodgates duly opened: in the last 10 years there have been 32 executions in Ohio alone.Kenny used to phone me every time there was an execution. It would shake him and the others, having to saying goodbye to someone they'd known for years.Supporters of capital punishment often close their eyes to the reality of death row and execution. If they actually knew the truth they might change their minds. Take Ohio's execution of Lewis Williams in 2004. Williams struggled with guards as they tried to inject him and his mother looked on. He begged to live and shouted over and over that he was innocent, calling on God to help. It took nine guards to hold down this 5ft 3in man. One guard, obviously distressed, pinned Williams down with one hand while stroking his head to comfort him with the other.I want to know: how can a prison officer go home to their family and act normally after something like this? Aren't they another victim of this barbaric, inhumane system?So after the fiasco of Broom's botched execution Ohio has killed Kenneth Biros, a man I've sent many cards to during the 18 long years he's been on death row. Remember: Biros had already served more time than many prisoners with a life sentence. And this is not just prison, it's imprisonment plus death. Capital punishment exceeds the calculated cruelty of the most heinous of murderers. It's like a criminal saying to his victim: "I'll kill you, but first I'll confine you for years ahead of that appointment with death."It's time for Ohio to shut down the machinery of death. And it's time the US came into the modern world and ended the grisly, inhuman business of warehousing people for death. The global picture shows a steady movement away from capital punishment: now only one in eight countries still executes people. The US is becoming increasingly isolated, left behind in a rump of hardcore death penalty countries that includes China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.As I can testify, campaigning against the death penalty makes a difference. The Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael did great work on Richey's case and has recently visited a man called Troy Davis (who is very likely innocent) on death row in Georgia. Davis has a new legal hearing and may soon be the 140th person to be released from death row in the US in the past three and half decades.Killing someone to prove that killing is wrong is absolute madness. The sooner that Ohio and the rest of the US realises this, the better.Capital punishmentOhioHuman rightsUnited StatesDrugsKaren Torleyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Scientists find clue to killer of Tasmanian devils WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fierce as they are, Tasmanian devils can't beat a contagious cancer that threatens to wipe them out. Now scientists think they've found the disease's origin, a step in the race to save Australia's snarling marsupial.... hosted.ap.org |
Breakfast briefing: Microsoft opens CES, pi gets bigger • CES opened on Wednesday as Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Robbie Bach took the stage to reveal... and what did they show off? Slate PCs from Hewlett Packard, though precious few details were revealed about when they might be available, for how much or - to be honest - what they really do. • For gamers the big news was that Project Natal, the company's motion sensitive gaming system that is intended to take on the Wii, should be available by Christmas. Still no price, though.• Away from CES, mathematicians were celebrating (as much as mathematicians ever celebrate) over the news that pi has been calculated to nearly 2.7 trillion digits. That's some serious number crunching: and the man behind it, Fabrice Bellard says the results take more than a terabyte of storage. Good times.You can follow our links and commentary each day through Twitter (@guardiantech, or our personal accounts) or by watching our Delicious feed.MicrosoftConsumer Electronics Show (CES)MathematicsWindowsComputingBobbie Johnsonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |