# Should this death row inmate be allowed to delay his execution? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 17, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-this-death-row-inmate-be-allowed-to-delay-his-execution/304306 "2005-05-17T21:39:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-this-death-row-inmate-be-allowed-to-delay-his-execution/304306/41 "2005-05-20T14:24:53Z")
There’s also the very real possibility that he’s made a deal with Satan to transfer his soul to his liver at the moment of execution, and when it’s transferred into another host, he’ll take over their body and go on a rampage of supernatural murders until an unlikely team of a doubting priest and a rogue cop take him down. Let’s not forget that. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-this-death-row-inmate-be-allowed-to-delay-his-execution/304306/42 "2005-05-20T14:26:46Z")
Wow. I didn’t even consider that possibility. I’m such an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-this-death-row-inmate-be-allowed-to-delay-his-execution/304306/43 "2005-05-25T16:28:21Z")
Johnson has been executed. According to [Reuters](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=9&u=/nm/20050525/ts_nm/execution_indiana_dc) Governor Mitch Daniels might have been amenable to a delay if Hohnson had been a good match for his sister. As it turns out, he has Hepatitis B. In addition, his sister needs a full liver, not a partial liver (and a kidney from the same donor as well). All this ruled out Johnson as a potential donor. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-this-death-row-inmate-be-allowed-to-delay-his-execution/304306/44 "2005-05-25T17:55:39Z")
Interesting. Nowhere is it mentioned that “you can’t take a liver from a guy who’s just been executed”. The “whole liver” requirement appears to have also precluded Johnson because he is too physically large, and hence so is his liver. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-this-death-row-inmate-be-allowed-to-delay-his-execution/304306/45 "2005-05-25T19:13:58Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Seems like a crazy policy, if true. People who wreck their livers by suffering from one disease, alcoholism, are denied organs because of the stigma of their disease? I don’t want to hijack this any further and perhaps it warrants a thread of its own, but it doens’t make sense. Perhaps it is a safeguard of sorts against giving a liver to someone who will just destroy it like they did to their own liver. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-this-death-row-inmate-be-allowed-to-delay-his-execution/304306/46 "2005-05-25T20:10:06Z")
Treis is correct. The problem with Micky Mantle wasn’t that he’d destroyed his liver through alcoholism, the problem was that he was still drinking. An alcoholic in recovery should get higher priority for a liver than an alcoholic who’s still drinking. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-this-death-row-inmate-be-allowed-to-delay-his-execution/304306.md?page=2)