Deborah Denno writes in the Huffington Post about Ohio’s use of a lethal dose of a single-drug to execute a prisoner on Death Row.
Over the decades, lethal injection has never met its purported goal of humaneness. The three-drug “cocktail” as it is called (bizarrely intimating that inmates die from happily attained hangovers) has been problematic from the start. The first of the three drugs (thiopental), a barbiturate anesthetic, is intended to serve as an execution “aperitif” to induce deep unconsciousness. The second drug (pancuronium bromide) paralyzes all voluntary muscles and causes suffocation. The third drug, potassium chloride, induces irreversible cardiac arrest. Without adequate anesthesia, however, pancuronium can cause excruciating suffering as the inmate slowly suffocates from the drug’s effects while paralyzed and unable to cry out. The inmate’s agony increases dramatically when executioners inject the third drug (potassium), which creates an intense and unbearable burning. Recent lawsuits have questioned whether pancuronium, which so effectively masks emotions, prevents executioners from assessing whether an inmate might be aware and in torment.
Read the entire Huffington Post column.