Terri Schiavo: Please explain something to me...

[irishgrl]

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

I actually confirmed this information with the ACLU's own website. I did have a full semester in law school on this very topic of capital punishment, which I found fascinating.

There is an issue of whether a state can force medication in order to make an inmate sane enough to execute. The Supremes did not agree to take the case and left it to the state to determine.

I did read it and the issue was slightly different than what you implied. While the Supreme Court did say that the 8th Amendment prohibits execution of mentally insane persons, they had more of an issue at how the Florida Executive branch arrived at its decision to go ahead and execute. Apparently they found fault with the PROCESS, not so much the prisoner's mental health state. I think it would be most interesting to find out what happend to Crazy old Ford....whether he avoided the death penalty in the end or not

also, in CA I believe we do use medication to make a prisoner sane. and then execute. having said that, however, we seem to have the OLDEST prisoners on death row of any state! by that I mean, the average wait time seems to hover around 15 to 20 years! many of these folks DIE first