Geiger’s Counter:
If it’s cruel, I don’t see it

By Walter Geiger
Editor & Publisher

William Earl Lynd was put to death by lethal injection at nearby Jackson State Prison May 6.

I watched him die.

His was the first execution in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court debated whether or not the lethal injection process amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The court decided for we, the people, and against death row inmates.

From 1735 to 1924, the legal method of execution in Georgia was hanging. It is estimated over 500 legal hangings occurred in the state during that period.

Hanging is a swift and sure method of execution. It worked just recently on Saddam Hussein. Muslim extremists who kill over films and cartoons and kill school kids with car bombs consider it humane.

In 1924, Georgia turned to electrocution as its method of execution. The chair was located at Georgia State Prison in Milledgeville. A total of 162 electrocutions were carried out there.

In 1938, the chair was moved to the new Georgia State Prison in Reidsville. The state executed 256 inmates there.

In 1962 the U.S. Supreme Court suspended all executions. We, the people, would not stand for it. In July, 1976 Georgia’s new death statute was approved by the Supreme Court.

Executions resumed at Jackson in 1983. Lynd’s was the 41st. The first by lethal injection came in 2001.

Georgia uses a three injection cocktail to kill killers. First applied is sodium pentothal, a powerful sedative. Next, 50 milligrams of pavulon paralyzes the diaphragm. Then, potassium chloride stops the heart.

All that comes after an optional doses of ativan - another sedative. Lynd accepted it.

They started the drugs on Lynd at 7:34 p.m. After a time, his eyes twitched, his skull-tattooed arms flexed and he sputtered and snored. His eyes rolled back in his head. His chest rose and fell for the final time at 7:43. He was pronounced dead at 7:51.

It was clinical, sterile and in stark contrast to the deaths of his victims.

Lynd fought with his live-in girlfriend Ginger Moore on Dec. 23, 1988. He shot her three times in the face and head and buried her in a shallow grave. He fled to Ohio where he shot and killed a female teacher who stopped to help him on the highway. Leslie JoAnne Starkey died on Christmas Day.

Lynd confessed. He has never shown any remorse and showed none in the death chamber. He made no final statement and refused the final prayer by a chaplain on his behalf offered by the warden.

Last week was the fourth time I have been called on to be a part of the media pool of witnesses at an execution. I’ve seen one electrocution and three lethal injections.

In each instance, the killer went out much more pleasantly than his victim or victims.

Some say any execution is cruel and unusual.

I just don’t see it.

What about you?