Oh, good.

[camwyn]

Roy "Dorkwad" Pearson loses $54 million trousers lawsuit.

Idiot. Idiot! What made this man think that any pair of trousers on the planet was worth that kind of fuss? What made him think that he could conceivably convince anybody that he was worth that kind of fuss, since so much of his case was predicated on "wah, wah, my TIME is VALUABLE"?

Stop being in my country, Roy, you're making my country look stupid.

Comments

[tundra-no-caps.livejournal.com]

Your country's litigation-happy trigger makes your country look stupid.

Roy Pearson is just an example case.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Dude, us Americans don't like his dumb-ass any better then the rest of the world's population that isn't currently brain-dead.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Now this guy has to be fired from the bench and be forced to pay back all costs or there will be no justice in the world. Who's going to want to work with him now? They might accidentally take a pen from his chambers and get sued for five million.

[fuchsoid.livejournal.com]

I think I read somewhere that a lot of other Washington lawyers had taken up a collection so that they could pay him to drop the stupid suit, so they must have felt he was making them look stupid too. Mind you, I suspect this man could make Einstein look stupid by standing next to him.

[mhw.livejournal.com]

Surely better than making your country look cruel (http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2529150720070625)?

[camwyn]

Only marginally. People like Dorkwad Pearson would probably claim that the man was faking his cancer to take away Pearson's oh-so-valuable time.

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

All things told, letting the guy die of cancer would be more cruel than putting him to sleep. Even with treatment, it's already in his spinal column. Bone cancer, or any cancer that has spread to the bone, is typically described as the most excruciating pain a human being can suffer (or, in some individuals, the second most severe behind widespread burns). Painkillers just don't go very far in that sort of situation.

[mhw.livejournal.com]

That may well be so; however:

1) I assume that, since his legal representative is attempting to stop the execution, Bland has considered this and has NOT chosen to let the state kill him. Portraying his judicial murder as some kind of "mercy killing" just doesn't work for me, I'm afraid.

2) I quote: Assistant Oklahoma Attorney General Seth Branham said that Bland's illness should not thwart the course of justice.

"He claims that because he's got cancer, that's a reason to let him go ahead and live a year or so and die on his own terms. If that's what he wanted, he shouldn't have shot Windle Rains in the back of the head,"

Again, this makes it perfectly clear to me that this is the State demanding its pound of flesh, not acting benevolently in the interest of one of its members.

It's no doubt true (if the lethal injection system works properly: there are ever more disturbing reports that it often does not) that he will suffer less by being executed than by living even with the best palliative care, but his lack of consent prevents this from being euthanasia, which is the only thing that I could equate with "putting to sleep".

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

I actually kind of agree with the AG. If it were a situation in which the guy had five years to live, he would be executed on schedule. This is his sentence; to whatever ends, it's what the state has determined is correct for the crime. (To get it out in the open, I'm pro-death penalty for cold-blooded and pre-meditated murder, deliberate and catastrophic acts of treason, and rape, especially underage rape. I'm extremely pro-choice. I usually vote Democrat.) He shot a man in the head in cold blood. He has a record prior to that act--and had finished 20 years in prison (a third of his sentence) a year before the murder. If he were well, or if he had any other condition, terminal or not, he would go through the execution process like everyone else.

The issue with the lethal injection system is twofold: it is dependent upon '70s-era medications, and it is administered by state officials rather than trained medical personnel. The system needs to be updated every few years to allow for newer and more effective drugs, and those administering it need at least phlebotomy training, and to have passed an A&P course. In one case of failure, the needles were inserted facing the hand rather than the body, which meant that the drugs could not reach the primary bloodstream and instead pooled in an extremity. With proper training and an updated approach, which could be secured within a year, the issues would resolve.

As for the euthanasia/not euthanasia issue, that's the guy's choice. I think he's stupid not to accept the way offered. Chemo is hell. Constant pain is almost impossible to describe. Even if he hasn't asked for euthanasia now, he'll give it at least a little thought in the coming months if his sentence is commuted.

On a selfish note, cancer treatment is expensive, and I can think of better uses for my tax dollars. (I'm in Oklahoma, so this directly affects me.) I wouldn't mind that money going into a fund to ensure that the state's poor can receive proper treatment, care, and comfort, including merciful end-of-life care--hell, I'd vote for it in a heartbeat--but the guy's filth. He wasn't sentenced to death for picking daisies. If he'd been kept inside for his full 60-year conviction, this discussion wouldn't even be taking place, and he'd die quietly, no publicity, in a prison infirmary. But he got out, and he went straight back to his old ways.

It's a complicated issue, and there's no clear-cut answer, but that's the way I see it.

[blackraven9.livejournal.com]

*Sigh*
This man is a JUDGE, a man in a position of authority!! What the hell was he thinking? Can we move the CAPITAL of our NATION to ANYWHERE other than Washington DC? Please!!!

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, but the jerks will follow it. No matter where you put a center of power, you eventually get the kind of people who really like power. When they are competent and charismatic, they become dictators, when they are incompetent and petty, they file multi-million dollar lawsuits over trousers.

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Don't send him here, please, we got enough of teh stooopid already.