head and my left leg, and I jumped against the straps. I saw little blue andpink and green speckles."(Costanzo-44) A year later he was executed again. As you can see from these examples, the executed often undergoes horrific physical and even emotional abuse. Can you imagine living through electrocution and going through the process one, two, or three more times! Although we first think of the effects on the executed, we don't always think of the effects on other people. There are people directly and indirectly involved. For example, Jurors, prison officials, the families of the condemned, and even the families of victims witness or are tied to it some other way. Botched executions can be the result of mistakes by the executioners, equipment problems or struggling by the prisoner. In order to perform lethal injection a prisoner with a history of "intravenous" drug use, the executioner may have to surgically locatea deeper vein. "Even a small error in dosage or administration can leave a prisoner conscious but paralyzed while dying, a sentient witness of his or her own, slow, lingeringasohyxiation."(Costanzo-46) The executioner has to live with the fact that there were the cause of the agonizing death of another human being. "A man lying face up on a hospital gurney is subjected to what looks like a routine medical procedure. The only difference is that the goal is to kill instead of heal."(Costanzo-47) In 1951, Eliso Mares was put to death by a firing squad. The prison staff likes Mares and so they aimed away from his heart Mares bled to death and it was a slow lingering process. Again, the executioners were at fault. In 1985, Alpha Otis Stephen's was shocked with three 1,900 volt of electricity. When Stephen's was shocked the first time, he struggled for breath for eight long minutes. he was shocked again but witnesses spotted him continuing to gasp for air. After 23 more breaths he was shocked one last time. Fred Leuchter, a major d...
