Bullshit!

Unless they had the janitors giving injections, bullshit. Someone "botched" this on purpose to make the man suffer. Veins are resilient. They have substance. An experienced doctor will know when the needle pierces the vein, when it misses it, or when it punctures the other side and goes through. These are not little "sticks," they are needles with decent size bores (for their purpose, I'm guessing), and these are subcutaneous, not intramuscular injections. They slide just under the skin and into a vein. The doctor would not be jamming it straight down/perpendicular; they go in on an angle. You've had a shot before. You remember. The doctor knows where he is guiding that needle, she knows where the vein lies. If that doctor picks the vein in the crook of the arm and has no idea of its circumference, then allow me to suggest that that doctor is a newbie, serious newbie.

Perhaps we can allow the doctor one error. It happens. we cannot allow for two in a row. Not when it comes to the type of junk he is pumpin' into this guy. As far as I'm concerned that's criminal negligence. If the State cares about the illnesses of a death row inmate, that says that the condemned human still is deserving of our humanity, right?

Eleven and twelve inch chemical burns around the injection sites? Word? So this was supposed to go right into the heart and brain instead? Where the chemical burns could blossom in earnest? Sounds humane, doc. What would we say about a doctor who did this out there in the world in secret? Without the State's blessing? A doctor who brought people into his home, strapped them down and injected corrosive chemicals into their internal organs? We'd call them madmen, lunatics, horror-shows. And you're not even allowed to remove a healthy appendix, right? Hypocratic oath and all?

Mistakes, an off day, little sleep, thoughtlessness, apathy, or a hangover may (if we want to be the generous ones) explain two missed (crucial) injections. But no amount of mistakes can account for what this "doctor" is lending her/his hand and skills to.

Why is it okay for doctors to help kill men, even under the rubrick of making their "passing" more merciful...if doctor-assisted-suicide is so terrible? Because the State Sez So. Hypocrites! Liars! Killers and flag waving fascists! When we kill you or send you to kill, that's for God-n-Country! But don't you go trying to apply our lessons to Life! We are the Dictators of Morality! We are the makers of the mad minds that bow under the weight of democratized dyslogic!

Sick men. Sick, sick, sick to strap a man down and do this to him. You can't even claim you were drunk or in a rage or insane, can you? What is your excuse for such calculated barbarism against a human being? Eye for an eye, is it?

Mira: you're a murderer too, doc.

UPDATE: Amiga Luisa makes a few good points about the mechanics of deathly needle giving which I should have known, but was too riled up to consider.