Killing Death Row: 4. Who cares if it hurts?

Gangster

BBC

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If a lethal injection death is considered to be painful, that could make it vulnerable to a legal challenge as unconstitutional. What can the death of Corey Johnson tell us about the pain of a lethal injection, and does proof of pain hold sway in any US court, or indeed in the court of public opinion? Livvy Haydock heads out on the road to talk to Texans., and deep into Death Row in the USA. While support for the Death Penalty in the US remains at over 50 per cent, there’s been a steady decline in the number of executions – from the modern era peak of 98 in 1999 to just 18 in 2023 so far. Only a handful of states actually carry out the killings. It’s even become more difficult for executioners to get hold of the drugs used in lethal injections, which is what led Livvy Haydock to a surreal story about a man in West London, who was supplying these drugs to state penitentiaries in the US, and on to the macabre world of Death Row – and the people who live, work, and die on it. Whether it’s the hunt for new lethal injection supplies, or the tip of the glasses that mark an executioner’s signal, Livvy goes right behind the scenes into the chamber itself to examine the pressures on the system that have left just 5 US states actively carrying out executions this year and around 2,400 Death Row prisoners in limbo. We’ll hear from an inmate waiting to die, and one saved at the last moment. We’ll chat to the wardens who make it happen, and the campaigners who want to stop it. And throughout, we’ll discover the possible future for Death Row in the only western democracy still carrying out capital punishment. Presenter: Livvy Haydock Series producer: Anna Meisel Sounds design and mix: Richard Hannaford Editor: Clare Fordham Production coordinator: Janet Staples

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Gary Lednika here with Alan Shira and Michael Richards to say the match of the day top 10 podcast is back
0:07.4	We'll be ranking our footballing top 10s and debiting. It was right. Well, it's don't be me. Not a champ, it's Gary
0:14.8	First season wonders to goalkeeping blunders. Nothing is off the table. You had a few blunders in your day. Did you Gary?
0:22.0	Yeah, match of the day top 10. Listen only on BBC sounds
0:27.4	BBC sounds music radio podcasts
0:36.0	Screaming the government has railroaded her son Richard Tipton's mother walks away from the federal courthouse
0:42.0	Tipton James from police and Richard Tipton and Corey Johnson a part of a gang fan guilty of a drug-fueled killing spree that rocked Indiana
0:51.4	That there are 11 dead bodies that they've left on the streets of the city with with
0:55.2	Hello Corey Johnson is important to our story because we're exploring the future of death row
1:03.8	In episode one we looked at how it became difficult because there were no lethal injection suppliers
1:10.1	But the authorities got round that everything you did was in secrecy. I mean it was like they won't adopt you
1:18.0	In the last episode we appeared inside the chamber to show you how a death is supposed to go
1:24.4	Supporters would say it's nice and smooth dignified no complaints. It seemed to work beautifully, but they all died
1:33.6	Nobody complained
1:35.6	That death needs to strike a balance between the victim's families need for justice and what's constitutional
1:43.0	But what happens if that balance is strained because now we're going to consider pain
1:50.0	If a lethal injection death is considered to be a painful death that could make it vulnerable to a legal challenge
1:57.3	We tend to take the scientist enter words of these drugs eliminate pain
2:02.6	But I think the only person that knows for sure is a person's dying
2:06.6	I'm Livy Haydock and from BBC Radio 4. This is killing death row
2:12.8	Episode four who cares if it hurts
2:29.0	Before I impose sentence mr. Johnson let me ask you again
	...

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