In what is clearly an appalling use of unnecessary force, Police have tasered a woman to death even though she was no threat.

What makes this particularly bad is the victim, in her fifties, had a mental condition, had a heart condition, was confined to a wheelchair, and was required to be on oxygen at all times.

Emily Delafield, a schizophrenic, was armed with two knives and a hammer when the Police arrived. Even so, she was no threat to anyone. She requires both hands to operate her wheelchair when she is even able to due to her extremely limited mobility. There was no indication she was going to harm herself.

The Police spent a grand total of 13 minutes trying to convince her to drop the weapons, before resorting to the taser. It gets worse. One officer used the taser on her nine times and another used it once, all in under three minutes (for a total of 121 seconds). The frequent shocks caused her heart to fail.

The Police involved were all cleared of any misconduct (they always are when it comes to tasers) and were even defended when Police Chief Robert Musco tried to justify the murder. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as a homicide.

Further reading.