Michael Portillo - The Science of Killing

[faceless]

I've never been a fan of Portillo, but this was a very interesting documentary as he looks into ways of killing people humanely via the death penalty. Most of the story is taken up with comparisons to systems used within America and each one is, to coin a phrase, busted.

Click HERE for a preview clip if you can't see the BBC ones. The clip doesn't really show the most interesting parts - which for me was seeing the proponents of the death penalty insisting that the victims of it must be made to suffer...

[nekokate]

I watched this when it aired earlier. Very creepy in parts.

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It was disturbing right at the very end when Portillo pitches his carbon monoxide (or whatever it was) idea for a "humane" execution to the head of the pro-death penalty lobby, and the guy is like "That's a terrible solution, it should be as painful as possible", with a strange, cold look in his eyes.

Personally I don't think that the method of execution is the punishment at all - if I were on death row I wouldn't lay awake at nights thinking "Oh, God, I wonder if it'll hurt when they kill me", rather I'd be laying awake thinking "Oh, God, they're going to kill me". The psychological element would be far worse than any momentary, physical pain.

I was also a bit wide-eyed when Portillo was in that low-oxygen chamber all delirious and the guy was like "Flick the switches, or you'll die... flick the switches, or you'll die" and Michael was just staring at him with a childlike ignorance and grinning - so far gone he couldn't give a fuck.

[faceless]

I put that bit in spoil tags Kate - it was quite an important part of the programme after all...

But you're right, it was quite a powerful moment. That guy had no idea of the concept that Portillo was putting forward.

[luke]

i wish i'd seen that - hopefully they'll repeat it, although aren't you supposed to be able to watch bbc stuff now on their iplayer? 'making the unmissable unmissable'?

[faceless]

it's uploading now - it will be ready in about 40 minutes

edit: scratch that... humyo have failed again - they must have put some filesize limit in. anyway, it's uploading to Google video, so that will probably work better in the long run anyway.

[Ash]

Yes, sounds very interesting. but i missed it completely

Anyway, i'll post some links later

[Bob]

Sounds interesting...

[harry perkins]

I just searched for "Portillo Science of Killing" on Google video and nothing came up, has it not uploaded yet. I would be very interested in seeing it as I almost did when it was broadcast. It would have been the first TV I've seen on a system that lets you see TV over the internet, but my Norton security blocked it.

[faceless]

Harry, check in Ash's documentary thread

nudge nudge...wink wink.

[harry perkins]

Thanks face, I got to that after making my last post. Unfortunatly it opens straight into a media player that says it doesn't work for me, so I'd still like to hold out for Google cos its simple and easy to download. Sorry

[faceless]

ok, here we go:



the stream isn't working right now (give it a while) but you download the avi direct by clicking HERE