this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
65 points (100.0% liked)

Politics

715 readers
9 users here now

For civil discussion of US politics. Be excellent to each other.

Rule 1: Posts have the following requirements:
▪️ Post articles about the US only

▪️ Title must match the article headline

▪️ Recent (Past 30 Days)

▪️ No Screenshots/links to other social media sites or link shorteners

Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. One or two small paragraphs are okay.

Rule 3: Articles based on opinion (unless clearly marked and from a serious publication-No Fox News or equal), misinformation or propaganda will be removed.

Rule 4: Keep it civil. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a jerk. It’s not acceptable to say another user is a jerk. Cussing is fine.

Rule 5: Be excellent to each other. Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, ableist, will be removed.

Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.

Rule 7. No conjecture type posts (this could, might, may, etc.). Only factual. If the headline is wrong, clarify within the body. More info

Bookmark Vault of Trump's First Term

USAfacts.org

The Alt-Right Playbook

Media owners, CEOs and/or board members

Video: Macklemore's new song critical of Trump and Musk is facing heavy censorship across major platforms.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

A South Carolina firing squad botched the execution of Mikal Mahdi last month, with shooters missing the target area on the man’s heart, causing him to suffer a prolonged death, according to autopsy records and his attorneys.

Mahdi, 42, was shot dead by corrections employees last month in the second firing squad execution this year in South Carolina. The state has aggressively revived capital punishment over the last seven months and brought back the controversial firearm method that has rarely been used in the modern death penalty era.

Autopsy documents and a photo reviewed by the Guardian, along with analysis commissioned by Mahdi’s lawyers, suggest the execution did not occur according to protocol, and that Mahdi endured pain beyond the “10-to-15 second” window of consciousness that was expected.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] isolatedscotch@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

endured pain beyond the “10-to-15 second” window of consciousness that was expected.

what?? just shoot them in the head, this is just plain brutality

[–] Milk_Sheikh@lemm.ee 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The methods of capital punishment are often chosen for those administering and witnessing it, not so much for the condemned. Because yes, you could have shot him in the head and destroy the brain/stem causing immediate death, but headshots with rifles cause extreme amounts of gore and viscera.

The electric chair, lethal injection, gas chambers, etc all leave the body mostly whole, and the desire is minimal cleanup. Unlike more classic executions like beheading, crushed by elephants, breaking on the wheel, burning at the stake, drawing and quartering, etc that were (by design) agonizing deaths and extremely messy.

The British used to hang people for almost anything, and they go so proficient at long drop hanging there was a calculation so the neck broke causing immediate death, but their head wouldn’t pop off too.

I’d highly recommend Discipline and Punish by Focault, he does a solid job chronicling how we ‘reformed’ the death penalty for the living’s sake.