Two Botched Executions

Clayton Lockett

The internet is abuzz over the botched execution of Clayton Lockett. The drugs administered via IV to kill him quickly instead left him convulsing. It took 43 minutes before his heart finally stopped and he died.

It had been June 3 of 1999 when Lockett and an accomplice, Shawn Mathis, decided to pull off a home invasion robbery when they were surprised by 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman, who had pulled up at the residence to drop off a friend. Stephanie refused to give the pair the keys to her pickup truck. Lockett and Mathis beat Stephanie, then used duct tape to gag her and bind her hands.

Stephanie
Neiman

They drove Stephanie down a dirt road into a remote area, where she was forced to watch as Mathis dug a grave for her in a roadside ditch. The men made Stephanie stand in the ditch, then shot her. Stephanie didn't die, and the shotgun jammed, preventing a second shot. Lockett went back to the truck to fix the gun while Stephanie pleaded for her life. The men laughed and joked about how tough Stephanie was. Finally the gun was fixed and Stephanie was shot a second time. This second shot also failed to kill her, so the pair just buried her alive and left the recent high school graduate to die.

The unexpectedly lingering death of Clayton Lockett made me think of another botched execution -- the execution of Sarah Brown in Kansas during the summer of 1993. Two injections of potassium chloride directly into her brain were unsuccessful in causing death. She was then wrapped in a blanket and left unattended for 24 hours before a nurse intervened and said that Sarah should be provided with care. Severely brain damaged, Sarah lost her vision and would never walk or talk. She died five years later, on September 28, 1998.

What crime had Sarah Brown committed that had ended in her being slated for death?

Sarah Brown

Just like Stephanie Neiman, it had simply been a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sarah had just had the bad fortune of being in the womb of a mother who chose an abortion at 36 weeks. Using Sarah's mother's age -- just 15 years old -- Dr. George Tiller proclaimed the death of Sarah to be vital to preserving the health of her mother.

There was no public outcry over Sarah Brown's botched execution. There were no hearings to determine if it was okay to continue to inject potassium chloride into the brains of healthy, viable unborn babies. In fact, when the Attorney General of Kansas decided to address Tiller's post-viability "health of the mother" abortions, it was he, not Tiller, whose career was destroyed.

Because that's how we do things in America. Just as abortion-rights activists who had power and authority in Pennsylvania moved to protect the interests of Kermit Gosnell, abortion-rights activists who had power and authority in Kansas moved to protect the interests of George Tiller.

Clayton Lockett's botched execution will lead to a huge public outcry, a huge public debate, and political wrangling over when and how and why to execute people who have committed a crime and gone through due process. Would that Sarah Brown's botched execution had gotten even a tenth of that attention. But the state-sanctioned killings of children like Sarah will continue as long as we entrust their care to abortion-rights supporters.

Postscript: You can help to change the tide of indifference to the killings of babies like Sarah and the Gosnell victims. Go to GosnellMovie.com and donate any amount -- as little as $1 -- to spread the word that enough is enough. A country that can have compassion for Clayton Lockett can muster a little compassion for babies as well.

A Tale of Two Fetuses

One of those fetuses who survived an abortion attempt speaks out on Obama:



That's gotta be as scary for Barak Obama as it was for Pat Schroeder: a fetus with attitude.

But Gianna was lucky. A nurse recognized her as a baby, not just a fetus ex-utero, and sent her to the NICU.

It is in the case of Ximenia Renearts that we more clearly see Obama's attitude in action. Ximenia's mother underwent an abortion, thought her fetus was dead, then showed up at a hospital in pain. The staff at the hospital elected to respect her choice, to refrain from further burdening her. They stuck the fetus in a bedpan. They left the fetus, cold and alone, in a closet. It wasn't until another hospital employee mistook the fetus for a baby that care was sought.

Ximenia's adoptive parents sued on her behalf, arguing that since she'd been born alive, she was a baby and entitled to care.

BC Minister of Health, Michelle Stewart, was dismissive of the issue of infants born live during abortions, commenting, "As you know, this Ministry is very much in favor of giving women choices about their reproductive health." British Columbia's Chief Coroner Larry Campbell included a letter in a report on such live births, and dismissed them as to be expected in abortion and therefore outside the purview of BC coroners, who only get involved if a death is "unexpected".

This is the stand Obama took. That providing care for babies like Ximenia was too much of a burden on the mother's choice.

If you're okay with that -- if you think that the wrongdoing was by the people who provided Ximenia with care, not by the ones who left her in a bedpan to die -- then by all means, vote for Barak Obama.

As for Ximenia herself, she is too profoundly disabled to speak out. About anything. Which is lucky for Obama. One less fetus with attitude to challenge his assertion that the proper thing to do with them is stick them in a closet and wait for them to die.

The baby that refused to die

We're twinseparable! Happy with his brother, the boy who refused to die

When Rebecca Jones learned, 10 weeks into her pregnancy, that she was carrying twins, she and her husband were excited, "over the moon."

Then an ultrasound at 20 weeks revealed heartbreaking trouble. One twin, Gabriel, was half the size of his brother Ieuan. His heart was enlarged to three times its normal size. Doctors feared that Gabriel would suffer a heart attack or stroke and die in the womb, endangering Ieuan's life. They recommended a procedure to beat the Grim Reaper to the ailing baby, certain that this would pose less threat to the healthy twin's life.

Rebecca was heartbroken. Doctors told her there was no way Gabriel could live even if he survived to birth. They presented the choice to Rebecca as between risking the life of the healthy child in order to possibly have Gabriel be born alive but die alone, versus a quick death in utero with his brother at his side. This convinced Rebecca that the procedure would be best for both babies.

So when Rebecca was 25 weeks pregnant, doctors tried to sever Gabriel's umbilical cord, thus cutting off his blood supply and killing him. But the cord was too tough to cut through. So they decided to divide the placenta, thus severing the connection between the twins, figuring that Gabriel would quicky die and Ieuan could survive.

A grieving Rebecca put her hands over her gravid belly, saying her goodbyes to her unborn son.

But the next morning, Rebecca could still feel both babies kicking. Doctors were astonished when they could still hear two heartbeats. Doctors dubbed the feisty little fetus "Rocky". And as time went on, Gabriel gained weight and his heart started to reduce in size.

Doctors believe that dividing the placenta may have evened out the imbalance between the twins, allowing Gabriel to get the nutrients he needed.

At 31 weeks, the boys were delivered by c-section. Ieuan weighed in at 3 pounds 8 ounces, and Gabriel at 1 pound 12 ounces. After a NICU stay, the boys went home. Now, at seven months of age, Ieuan weighs 15 pounds and Gabriel 12 pounds 6 ounces.



Rebecca says that the boys always stay close, always holding hands. "The boys are so healthy, they have huge appetites too. Ieuan is the noisy one, while Gabriel is always laughing, it's like he's just so happy to be here. There is such a strong bond between them. They are always holding hands and if one cries, the other reaches out to comfort him. Doctors tried to break their bond in the womb, but they just proved it couldn't be broken."

And, God willing, doctors will use what Gabriel taught them to save other babies with similar problems.