Oh, to be in Alabama last week to witness how they went about the judicial execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. You'd think it would be just another day at the office; Alabama has 170 inmates on Death Row and some experience in executions. A spokesman for the Department of Justice said this execution was 'nothing out of the ordinary'. Except, it was.
First, prison officials took exception to how a female reporter was dressed. One woman had been subjected to a 'full body inspection' before being allowed in to the prison but a second was barred because 'her dress was too short'. Apparently, it's OK to kill someone with a lethal injection but heaven forbid that a female person should wear a short skirt.
The reporter in question tried to pull her skirt down around her hips, to no avail. A photographer who was there said she had some rubber fishing waders in her car so the reporter put those on, attaching their straps under her skirt to keep them up. Still not satisfied, the prison officers complained about her open-toed shoes. Luckily she had some old sandshoes in the car so she wore those. Picture it: beautifully dressed from the waist up, hair and makeup immaculate but, from the waist down, clumsy, khaki rubber waders hanging down from beneath her skirt and finished off with shabby, grubby tennis shoes.
With all that drama out of the way, they set about executing the prisoner by lethal injection. After three hours of digging around for a vein, one was found and they went ahead with the execution. About time, too! The murder was committed in 1994 and the culprit was soon apprehended so for the last 28 years, the prisoner had been taking up space at the maximum security prison.
And they claim to be civilised.
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