Lethal injection may cause agony: rights group

By Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Execution by lethal injection may
cause excruciating pain, contradicting its reputation as a
humane and thus publicly acceptable way to impose the death
penalty, Human Rights Watch said.

Executioners fail to take the steps needed to ensure a
painless death and use a drug that veterinarians have deemed
too cruel for putting down dogs and cats, the group said in a
report released on Monday.

However, a leading death penalty proponent dismissed the
report as “blind speculation,” saying there was no evidence of
someone being conscious and in agony during lethal injection.

Human Rights Watch, which opposes the death penalty in all
cases, issued the report amid increased scrutiny of lethal
injections across America.

A North Carolina man was executed by lethal injection on
Friday by officials who, following a judge’s order, used a
brain wave monitor to ensure he did not suffer undue pain.

In other states such as Florida and California, executions
have been delayed while courts consider whether the lethal
injections cause agony. An execution in California was halted
in February after the prison failed to find anesthesiologists
willing to certify the inmate’s death was painless.

“There is mounting evidence that prisoners may have
experienced excruciating pain during their executions. This
should not be surprising given that corrections agencies have
not taken the steps necessary to ensure a painless execution,”
Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch does not endorse any alternative method
but said as long as the death penalty is legal in the United
States it wanted to enforce international human rights laws
requiring the least possible suffering.

THREE DRUGS OF DEATH

In the standard method used by 38 states, the condemned are
injected with three successive drugs: the anesthetic sodium
thiopental which renders the inmate unconscious, followed by
the paralyzing agent pancuronium bromide, and finally a drug
that stops the heart, potassium chloride.

The problem, Human Rights Watch says, is that the paralytic
may prevent inmates from expressing the excruciating pain that
potassium chloride would cause if the anesthetic fails.

The American Veterinary Medical Association condemns the
use of potassium chloride during euthanasia unless it used with
another drug that has already made the animal unconscious.

“There is mounting evidence of botched executions,” the
report said, citing an executioner who improperly inserted a
needle, others who repeatedly stuck inmates searching for a
vein, and an inmate who convulsed, opened his eyes, and
appeared to try to catch his breath during his execution.

Dudley Sharp, a Texas-based death penalty proponent from
the group Justice Matters, called the Human Rights Watch
arguments “just plain stupid.”

“They’re using words like might or could. They’re not
dealing with facts. This is blind speculation by a group that
wants to stop all executions, painful or not,” Sharp said.

“There’s no evidence the level of anesthesia has ever
dropped below levels that would induce full unconsciousness. No
one has ever produced evidence of someone being conscious and
in agony,” Sharp said.