Posted on 04/24/2007 7:30:59 AM PDT by SmithL
Inmates executed by lethal injection may in some cases die by "chemical asphyxiation" while conscious but unable to move, according to a new analysis of California and North Carolina executions released Monday.
The study appearing in the online edition of PLoS Medicine -- a San Francisco-based medical journal -- was authored by the same team of doctors and death penalty opponents who raised similar concerns about the procedure in the British medical journal The Lancet in 2005.
That earlier study, which said sub-potent amounts of the anesthetic sodium pentothal were found in the corpses of executed inmates, helped to propel the current debate as to whether lethal injection is more humane or another form of "cruel and unusual punishment."
Lethal injections are typically performed by infusing through an intravenous line overdoses of three chemicals in succession: sodium pentothal, to render the inmate unconscious; potassium chloride, to stop the heart; and pancuronium bromide, to stop respiration.
Dr. Leonidas Koniaris, a surgeon at the University of Miami in Florida and lead author of both papers, said the amount of sodium pentothal used in executions -- particularly the 3 grams employed in North Carolina -- may not be sufficient to knock out the condemned inmates while the two other chemicals do their lethal work. California's protocol required 5 grams.
Either "dose may not be associated with the induction of anesthesia, particularly in bigger men,'' he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Problem solved.
L
Me either. I don’t care if it does hurt, it ought to IMO. Did these murders have any compassion for their victims while they were killing them? No... so just give them the shot and get it over with. As long as they die I don’t see the big deal. I am more outraged that this is even an issue at all. These are KILLERS...Who cares if they feel pain....
I’m rather fond of the old “eye for an eye”, myself. Kill them in the same manner they killed their victim(s).
Then go back to the Ol’ Smokey electric chair;
Then go back to hanging;
Then go back to the Gary Gilmore shots to the body;
Then go back to the Carl Chessman gas chamber;
Personally, I vote to take them all to the electric chair.
I see so much justice in seeing them fry.
I’d be satisfied if they just strap on some cement golaces and pitch them into the ocean.
i think the problem may be the needle and delivery lines are dirty....run a cup of bleach through the lines first, then the 3 drugs....
You know what, one round of CMP 30-06 between the eyes is cheaper and works faster.
The libs are VERY concerned over the suffering of a condemned criminal, but DON’T care about the suffering of a baby killed in the process of being born.
30/06 is messy, a .22 short doesn’t get crud all over the walls.
spot on
Can’t we just revert back to using a rope and gallows?
Their quarrel is not with the fine points of any particular method, but with capital punishment in general, and I hope some are honest enough to admit that however the procedure may be tweaked, they’ll raise an infinite series of objections.
AND, rope is reusable.
Yes, but the crud serves as a visual deterrent
That sums it up well.
How about all four in quick sucession, with a leathal injection chaser. That ought to kill ‘em without any groanin and moanin.
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