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Helping Karl
Las Vegas Optic
November 2007
Though Chamberlain’s date is set, the likelihood is that his appointment with the executioner will be postponed. Texas, like Kentucky, uses a three-drug protocol to carry out executions by lethal injection. The drugs used are swift, fierce. Sodium thiopental is administered to sedate the prisoner. Pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant, collapses the diaphragm and lungs. Potassium chloride stops the heart. The prisoner is pronounced dead about seven minutes after the lethal injection begins. The drugs must be delivered in precise sequence; a mistake can mean horrific pain and awareness.
Because medical doctors take the Hippocratic oath — a pledge that promises to never cause harm to a person — there is difficulty finding competent help when it comes to executions.Whiteman says. “A humane doctor won’t perform an execution. State execution is considered an act of barbarism by most of the world,” laments Whiteman. “We are evolving to a point when the death penalty will be considered barbaric by the United States as well. Most people haven’t thought about it. Support for capital punishment is a mile wide and an inch thick.”
In a statement from Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office, a spokesperson says, “The governor’s position on this is that it is a decision for the court, and the state will continue moving forward with the executions until the court rules otherwise.”
Arthur is holding slim hope that her son’s case might be commuted to life without parole.
“Karl says it’s late in the game. He believes that Texas will concoct another cocktail, one that will answer the problems the current one has. Since he was given a date, he feels he needs to prepare for the dates he was given. He’s not asking for parole. He knows he’s done a terrible thing. But life in prison would allow him to continue to make amends.”
Arthur consoles herself with Chamberlain’s poetry — elegant stanzas written from son to mother, from killer to victim with remorse, from prisoner to society.
“This could happen to any of us,” she repeats. “Everyone is affected. We automatically close our eyes to the suffering of others because we’re afraid. This has been a big part of my journey. Others immediately put up an eye-for-an-eye attitude, but I’m Karl’s mother, and I need to stand by him. I am as sad and hurt as anyone by what he’s done. I just hope that somehow we can start to look each other in the eye again and help each other through these troubled times.”30th November 2007
Birdie Jaworski
Las Vegas Optic
