U.S. Executions by Lethal Injection May Not Be Humane or Painless...

Prisoner executions by lethal injection in the United States may not be painless or humane, and may not even meet veterinary standards for putting down animals.

The authors concluded that prisoners executed by lethal injection may have experienced awareness and unnecessary suffering as they died because they weren't properly sedated. Anesthesia during lethal injection is essential to minimize the prisoner's suffering.

news.yahoo.com... /hsn/20050414/hl_hsn/usexecutionsbylethalinjectionmaynotbehumane

Lethal injection involves sequential administration of sodium thiopental for anesthesia, pancuronium bromide to induce paralysis, and then potassium chloride to stop the heart and cause death. If anesthesia wasn't used, the condemned prisoner would suffocate and experience excruciating pain without being able to move.

Researchers at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine analyzed execution protocol information from Texas and Virginia, which account for about 45 percent of executions in the United States. They found that executioners had no training in anesthesia; the drugs were administered remotely with no monitoring of the anesthesia; and there was no data collection, no documentation of anesthesia, and no post-procedure peer review.


The authors also analyzed toxicology reports from 49 prisoners executed in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. In 43 of the 49 cases, the authors found blood concentrations of the anesthetic sodium thiopental were lower than that required for surgery. In 21 cases, the concentrations were low enough to be consistent with awareness on the part of the prisoner during execution.



... I'll be the first to admit that I don't really care one way or another if those condemed to death feel pain or not, but I do care if the law says that there should be a certain procedure followed...

...and I'm worried about the painless execution of a rapist or murderer.

I'm just as worried about the lack of suffering as the criminal was about his victim.

If the law requires anethesia, the law should be changed.

[edit on 14-4-2005 by Thomas Crowne]

I vote to change the law and have the criminal who's on death row to recieve the same pain as their victims. We are far too lenient with these scumbags. It sickens me to think that these people who we can do without have rights at all.