Anthony—The Medicine & Justice Project
@ajbsaysthings.bsky.social
Author, The Medicine & Justice Project on Substack. BA @jacksonvilleu, CCP @uf. Firefighter/paramedic. Got a head full of lightnin', and a hat full of rain.
If you happened to have read my "Alabama Is Stunningly Mendacious about Executions" piece from back then, I regret to inform you that it is already one act of stunning Alabama execution mendacity behind.
bethshelburne.substack.com/p/what-happe...
What happened when I tried to get Kenneth Smith's autopsy report
Alabama denied request on nation's first execution by nitrogen hypoxia. The reason why is laughable.
bethshelburne.substack.com
Alabama English is my native tongue, so I don't think it's a language barrier that keeps me from understanding what the Alabama Department of Corrections means by its clearly botched "textbook" executions.
medicineandjustice.substack.com/p/the-alabam...
The Alabama Department of Corrections Uses a Different Dictionary
When they most likely describe today's execution in glowing terms, understand what they mean.
medicineandjustice.substack.comGlossip is a really great example of this: Alito codifies Baze's absurd BYOB test, where Thomas just comes out and says that the Eighth Amendment only applies to intentional cruelty.
Like, my brother in Christ there are space machines working right now with less computing power than the average gaming laptop.
"You can only sit on a capital jury if you're functionally in favor of the death penalty" is a hell of a perverse incentive that we're apparently cool with.
The customer unfortunately thought the DMV would spend 30 seconds on Google.
Every protest of a non-US-aligned regime is similarly a "color revolution." I think it's universal.
(Spiders...?)
I somehow managed to avoid law school, only to be able to recite the case law on lethal injection anyway. For a value that approaches "fun."
Also, lethal injection polls better than the death penalty itself despite being objectively the worst execution method.
medicineandjustice.substack.com/p/10-years-a...
10 Years after Clayton Lockett's Execution: What's Changed, What Hasn't
On April 29th, 2014, Lockett's execution revealed the true nature of lethal injection. Dishearteningly little changed in the decade that followed.
medicineandjustice.substack.com
Two things:
1) I have roughly 0% doubt a "consultant" paid a lot of money to teach "riot control" to the NYPD
2) the presence of an adult who does this professionally *decreases* the chance of violence or lawbreaking
This is true, although federally they're way ahead. The big fight for federal (structural) firefighters is something police got years ago, and it's a losing fight.
(To say nothing of wildland firefighters, who the government would probably not stipulate are human.)
Never thought a headline with "UNF" and "shuts down" would feel so disappointing.
#9 Austin Sarat's Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty
He also has a short book specific to lethal injection.
Not to mention the nationwide lie* influencing harm augmentation efforts.
*Constanza Rule disclaimer
medicineandjustice.substack.com/p/florida-st...
Florida Stands Ready to Protect Its First Responders from Nothing
The myth of casual-contact fentanyl overdose is wasteful and dangerous, but when has that stopped us?
medicineandjustice.substack.com
At least 12.
www.revolt.tv/article/2020...
Pearland police stationed sniper units at George Floyd burial
The snipers were authorized to use “deadly force” if they were faced with behavior that could cause them “imminent harm.”
www.revolt.tv
10 years ago today, Clayton Lockett writhed in agony as a poorly chosen and poorly administered lethal injection protocol worked its way through his veins. The incident revealed the truth about lethal injection—but it didn't change much.
medicineandjustice.substack.com/p/10-years-a...
10 Years after Clayton Lockett's Execution: What's Changed, What Hasn't
On April 29th, 2014, Lockett's execution revealed the true nature of lethal injection. Dishearteningly little changed in the decade that followed.
medicineandjustice.substack.comEven after ACEP finally gave up on it (one of the last two holdouts), there's been no systemic effort even to inform EMS of the change.
Yes, that's *a lot* of the reason (there are legitimate scenarios for prehospital sedation, but I believe this report only covers police contacts, which would mostly be ED).
The medical board that governs most of EMS endorsed ED until 2023; most medics don't even know there's a controversy.
Old and busted: there is always a tweet
New hotness: there is always an Instagram post
I don't think people understand how easy it is *not* to kill someone with midazolam or ketamine (the latter especially). Even the pretty high dose Elijah McClain got (appropriateness aside) shouldn't have been life-threatening in the circumstances. Just...do your job.
I was a little too green to supervisor-ism and it was a frustrating situation for everyone. We just ignored him and I brought it up in a meeting after the fact.
My biggest regret in this career is that I didn't get the name of the cop who told me to "put him in the K-hole" no more than three feet from the patient.
I haven't met many paramedics who even knew "excited delirium" was controversial before I started talking about it. Even after ACEP ended its holdout, there's been no systemic effort to update protocols or educate providers.
I haven't met many paramedics who even knew "excited delirium" was controversial before I started talking about it. Even after ACEP ended its holdout, there's been no systemic effort to update protocols or educate providers.
The other trouble is, we all learned (and there's been no effort to get us unlearned) that there's a syndrome that gets people into this life-threatening condition absent any external cause, that's coincidentally highly comorbid with police contact.
We theoretically have "implied consent" to treat people too altered by a life-threatening condition to give informed consent.
Trouble is, some of my colleagues appear happy to outsource their assessment to police. Most of these patients would be alive if they had the bare minimum assessment done.
Notably, at least in the Texas sample, there were *quadruple* the number of deaths using midazolam than ketamine.
Ketamine saves lives; not doing the bare minimum for your patient kills.
Proponents call similarities between the methods of American capital punishment and Nazi genocides "superficial." How prison officials betray American values to keep the killing going is anything but. My latest: open.substack.com/pub/medicine...
Death Penalty Proponents Don't Have to Like the Nazi Comparisons, But We Don't Have to Ignore Them
In both their methods and their commitment to institutional secrecy, comparisons between American capital punishment and Nazi state homicide are inevitable.
open.substack.comA similarly aged course (Goofy Golf) is still kicking just up the road on Eglin.
Similarly, "technicalities" seem to only exist for the defense, even as a different man awaits execution because evidence of his innocence wasn't filed right.
Similar to "fentanyl exposure laws," they're gestures in the direction of problems that demographics won't let them ignore and politics won't let them solve.
There are *just* enough administrative and command nightmares in the Uvalde response that they can blame it on that rather than considering it a personal failing.
One of my hot takes is that if you controlled for conditions common to all shift workers, public safety/military suicide rates would look much closer to baseline. The stuff inherent to our jobs is a red herring.
I feel like this phenomenon is the only thing that's gotten worse over here than it was over there.
The criminal legal system is scandalously ill-equipped to handle medical questions. Deference to trial courts effectively means that a medical opinion based on current evidence carries LESS weight than one that's nearly 20 years old.
Every medical expert who testified agreed that baby Alex did not die because of trauma, but the judge was not convinced to set his father free.
The criminal legal system is scandalous ill-equipped to handle medical questions. Deference to trial courts effectively means that a medical opinion based on current evidence carries LESS weight than one that's nearly 20 years old.
Decision in the Russell Maze case. His conviction will not be vacated.
Judge Denies Post-Conviction Relief in 25-Year-Old Murder Case
Russell Maze's post-conviction relief request to reopen his murder conviction denied. New evidence failed to convince the judge.
nashvillebanner.comAlso, it's really been something how the type of person I expected to hear this argument from flipped 180 degrees practically overnight.
Unfortunately, FIRE has a ton of putative allies who have double the visibility but half the principles.
I've never met anyone who went to such a place and wasn't at least like "I wish we could do that."
Phrased this all wrong recently and caught well-deserved heat, so let me be more careful:
The STATED reason for this will be something like the threat of a mass shooter/terror incident. Whether it's actually an effective preventative measure for thag is another matter.
Hot take: the Gemstones were wrong; a Bible-themed Family Feud is objectively a good idea for a Christian TV network.
Boots on the ground, riot gear, etc. I could have worded it better.
I'm not always successful (look at what my dumb ass went and did here, after all), but I *really* try to keep my commentary on capital punishment limited to American "medicalized" methods, because I have experience and training on the legitimate uses of the same drugs and procedures.
I'm genuinely curious how you'd characterize them, if you don't feel that's accurate.