Watching the state kill

[madmusic]

Witnessing Execution a Matter of Duty, Choice

By Candace Rondeaux
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 10, 2006; Page A01

They couldn't take their eyes off the electric chair. They took it in piece by piece as they filed into the witness room: The leather restraints on the giant oak armrests. A long electrical cord coiling from the bottom across the slate gray death chamber floor.

The candle shop owner grabbed one of the white plastic lawn chairs in front of the plate glass window that would soon separate the living from the dead. Next to her, the social worker nervously smoothed her hair as she took a seat with a direct view of the chair. The investigator climbed the wood risers and took a seat behind them.

The clock's second hand swept over the 12. It was 9 p.m. -- time for the execution to begin.

more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/09/AR2006120900923.html

The one that gets me is the "social worker." She reminds me of http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-30-florida_x.htm">this nurse.

[Warpy]

1. Since that USA Today article won't load

and none of the other news articles mention it, what is the nurse alleged to have done?

Was s/he present? Was s/he the one who used the ammonia?

I'm really curious about this one.

On edit, "That was the worst part," Rosson said. "We all have to sit here waiting five minutes so the man can finish dying. You think of dying as something personal, and it was just a really horrible, public and invasive way to die. I would not want to see that again."

It sounds like Rosson, the social worker, might be leaving the dark side.

[madmusic]

2. That's true about leaving the dark side...

And now that you mention it, I didn't realize it was the social worker who said that, and she is not the nurse.

Another link to the nurse story anyway...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/28/bootcamp.death.ap/index.html