Indiana executes man who wanted to donate liver

[ConfuZed]

By Karen Murphy

MICHIGAN CITY (Reuters) - Indiana on Wednesday executed a convicted murderer who had sought a reprieve so he could donate part of his liver to an ailing sister.

Gregory Johnson, 40, was pronounced dead at 12:28 a.m. CDT (0528 GMT) after an injection of lethal chemicals, officials at the Indiana State Prison said.

A signed, hand-written statement by Johnson released after his execution accused authorities of failing to recognize that he had changed while in prison and was capable of a humane act such as donating an organ.

His final words were, "Everyone has been professional," prison spokeswoman Java Ahmed said...

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2005-05-25T064450Z_01_N25357671_RTRIDST_0_USREPORT-EXECUTION-INDIANA-DC.XML

What do you guys think of Governor Mitch Daniels?

[yvr girl]

1. What would it have hurt to let him live a few more

weeks/months?

I think saving a life would have been a fitting form of rehabilitation and a way to make amends.

[Robeson]

7. Agree.

[M155Y_A1CH]

12. I agree with you

Victims rights? What a cop-out.
He was on death row for half of his life already.
It was like twenty years ago that he committed his crimes.
He has been locked up since he was a young man and I don't see how a few more weeks could possibly matter.

Anyone wanting him dead has long ago learned to be patient.

[mimitabby]

20. read the whole article!

he had hep b and cirrosis of the liver!!!
no doctor is going to put a diseased liver into his patient!

[nedbal]

21. NOT A GOOD MATCH

He released a letter from two experts at Indiana University Hospital's transplant center which said Johnson's liver was not a good match for his sister, 48-year-old Deborah Otis. The letter said Johnson has Hepatitis B and large body weight, making his liver less desirable, and his sister in any case needs a full rather than partial transplant, along with a kidney from the same donor, to survive.

Her organ is afflicted with nonalcoholic cirrhosis, though she is not currently on a transplant waiting list because of a temporary medical complication. Continued ...

[LisaL]

29. Apparently, his liver was no good-he has hepatitis B,

so they would not be able to transplant it anyway.

[Booster]

30. And why aren't the extreme fundamentalists screaming their heads

off about this? Our side should be pointing fingers at each and every one of them for not speaking up for this sister's life. What a bunch of.....well, you know.

[MnFats]

2. he's trying to emulate Bush as governor....

....did he mockingly say 'please don't kill me...and my sister?' and get a little chuckle out of it?

assholes. shut down the machinery of death.

[Maraya1969]

3. They made such a big deal about the man dying on the operation table

and that is NOT how a liver transplant works - at least with a person who is alive. They donate a part of their liver and the liver regenerates itself very quickly. They said there was some law about not killing him during the operation and it was all bullshit.

Another example of how our country is turning into a bunch of barbarians. Now someone else is going to be denied a liver because this woman will get theirs. And that liver may not take.

It is plain idiocy.

[Maraya1969]

4. Did you see this part from page two??????

"In a Florida case, an inmate was denied a request to donate a kidney to his brother. The condemned man was later exonerated and released from jail, but his brother died waiting for a transplant, Dieter said."

[NYC]

32. That's truly terrible.

Inexcusable.

[ninkasi]

5. And this is supporting

a culture of life? Hypocrites and liars, all of them. They care nothing about anything except their own agenda, and that agenda leads to making money for Bush and his friends. The rest is just window dressing.

They manipulate the wing nut fundies to get their votes, but in the end, it all comes down to money, and getting all of it they can. It's a disease, it's in their blood, they can't stop. So they could round up protests and support for a brain dead woman, to keep her alive under any circumstances, but they couldn't delay an execution long enough to let a man try to save his sister's life.

These people sicken me more and more every day. They are vile, evil, bloodthirsty, and insane. What more can I say? This country has been taken over by sociopaths, and nobody but us seems to notice, or care.

[NuttyFluffers]

6. oh god... is this like a two-fer?

does this make the gov. tough on the weak and dying too? how much more macho crap do we have to take before we get sick of it as a culture.

[DRoseDARs]

8. The victim's family can now rest easy knowing his liver died with him. n/t

:puke:

[Merlin]

9. Christ! Between Indian, Ohio & Pennsylvania, we have a swath of

iniquity that is embarassing as hell for one whose lived in 2 of the 3.

This is simply barbaric and senseless.

[EST]

10. Does make me feel a bit better about living in Illinois

where the departing governor, barely outrunning prosecution over his own corrupt regime, commuted sentences and yanked up short the slavering death dragon.

[noonwitch]

16. I'm glad that Michigan doesn't have the death penalty

Not that there aren't a lot of people that want it. It is in the state constitution, and it would not be easy to reinstate it.

There was a guy who committed a murder in the Grand Rapids area who got the death penalty-he killed his girlfriend and dumped her in the Manistee National Forest, so he was convicted and sentenced in federal court.

[Merlin]

33. Ah, but Michigan has its own evils: Detroit White Guys In Suits!

I'm on a rant today about the insufferable instincts that have misguided US auto makers for three generations. Motown's white guys in suits, once rulers of the industrial world, are now so far outclassed by the city's black guys in shorts, they are barely a junk-bond speck in the rear view mirror of Chauncey Billup's Jag.

[BR_Parkway]

11. Thank you "culture of life"; once again proving exactly what you are(n't)

[insane_cratic_gal]

13. What about erroring on the side

of life?

Guess that shit was just pandering to the zealots

[alarimer]

14. So essentially they killed the sister too

Who had done nothing wrong except be related to this guy. Well hoefully she'll find another donor but so much for the culture of life.

I hate these bloodthirsty assholes.

[progressivebydesign]

24. No! He had hepatitis and was not eligible.

And... you mean like he stomped to death someone's grandmother?

[alarimer]

26. Okay, I didn't know this

I am opposed to the death penalty in every case though.

[Bzzzz]

15. Supposedly...

Gov. Mitch 'The Bitch' Daniels conferred with two transplant physicians and they said that he would not be considered donor material due to his weight problems and Hepatitis B.:shrug:

[sendero]

17. I'm not against the death penalty....

... but I just can't see how working with the guy to make a liver donation possible is asking that much.

It's pathetic, this culture of life.

[lateo]

18. Culture of life! Culture of life!

Yeah...

Right...

[hvn_nbr_2]

28. You beat me to it. So I'll repeat: Culture of life. n/t

[tk2kewl]

19. I hope Mitch Daniels is planning on donating a portion of his liver

to a compatible patient. It's hard to think of a more despicable human being right now.

[Strawman]

22. I'll bet he would have let him donate it to the embryonic Baby Jesus

There's good PR and votes in a move like that (even though it makes no sense at all).

[progressivebydesign]

23. He had hepititis and excess body weight and was not eligible.

Guess he should have thought about how it feels to have a family member die when he was stomping to death that sweet eldery grandmother. Sorry for his sister, but karma is a bitch.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. I'm SO glad I don't believe in supernatural mumbo jumbo.

When it's not God throwing children to wild bears for calling a "holy" man baldy, it's this "karma" punishing someone by killing his innocent loved ones.

[Booster]

31. Come to think of it, you might have a good point. I'm sure his

sister's health problem wasn't just discovered right before he was to be put to death, so maybe he could have donated a portion of his liver a long time ago and saved her life, like before he got so overweight, etc. hmmmmm

[WoodrowFan]

27. read the entire article people, he couldn't donate it

read the whole article. He couldn't donate his liver....

.....from two experts at Indiana University Hospital's transplant center which said Johnson's liver was not a good match for his sister, 48-year-old Deborah Otis. The letter said Johnson has Hepatitis B and large body weight, making his liver less desirable, and his sister in any case needs a full rather than partial transplant, along with a kidney from the same donor, to survive.

Her organ is afflicted with nonalcoholic cirrhosis, though she is not currently on a transplant waiting list because of a temporary medical complication.

that said, I oppose executions, period. But in this case the governor wasn't being cruel to the sister or denying her medical care.


ALWAYS read all the article before jumping to conclusions!