Post by Anja on Jun 22, 2006 18:08:08 GMT -5
Inmate's lawsuit questions lethal injection, and the process behind the
curtain.
Though victims' rights advocates have long complained that execution by
lethal injection is too placid a death for convicted killers, a federal
civil rights lawsuit filed by an Arkansas inmate argues the procedure can
conceal an agonizing demise. Detailing a number of problematic Arkansas
executions of years past, the lawsuit maintains that untrained medical
staff and the type of chemicals used to kill condemned inmates raise the
likelihood of an excruciatingly painful death.
Filed May 1 by Arkansas death row inmate Terrick Terrell Nooner, the
lawsuit lists several Arkansas Department of Correction officials as
plaintiffs, as well as "Does 1-50, Unknown Executioners" - the anonymous
support personnel who assist in and carry out the execution process.
Julie Brain, the federal public defender who is representing Nooner,
refused to comment for this article, citing the policy of her office. The
lawsuit is still pending, despite some twists and turns in other federal
courts.
In addition to questioning the use of untrained medical personnel to
administer the lethal injection process (doctors and nurses are barred
from participating in executions by the Hippocratic oath), another issue
addressed in Nooner's lawsuit is the three drugs used to anesthetize,
paralyze and finally stop the heart of the condemned. According to ADC
protocol outlined in the lawsuit, the first drug administered is 2 grams
of Thiopental, a fast-acting barbiturate that is supposed to render the
subject unconscious and anesthetized from pain. The IV lines are flushed
with saline, and then 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide are injected.
A paralytic, pancuronium bromide stops all voluntary muscular function in
the body, but does nothing to control either pain or conscious thought (as
such, it has featured prominently in many botched-anesthesia horror
stories in which patients were operated on while fully conscious and yet
unable to move). Yet another saline flush is followed by 150
milliequivalents of potassium chloride, which stops the heart, but which
the lawsuit points out feels like "a fire traveling through the vein" if
the subject is not properly anesthetized (as such, the American Veterinary
Medical Association prohibits the use of potassium chloride in euthanizing
animals unless the subject has reached a "surgical plane" of anesthesia
prior to the injection).
Nooner's objection to methods of lethal injection and the 3-drug
"thingytail" used to execute the condemned isn't new. Death penalty
opponents have long questioned whether inmates might feel pain during the
lethal injection process if the initial anesthetizing dose was botched -
especially when administered by untrained personnel.
The issue gained considerable steam in April 2005 when an article appeared
in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet. In the article, a
team of researchers from the University of Miami examined the toxicology
reports on 49 executed inmates from four states. They found that 43 of the
subjects had concentrations of Thiopental in the blood that didn't meet
the requirements for surgical anesthesia. Furthermore, in 21 of the
inmates, researchers concluded that the amount of Thiopental in the blood
was insufficient to render the subject unaware of his or her surroundings
- a state which the subsequent dose of pancuronium bromide would have
masked.
"We certainly cannot conclude that these inmates were unconscious and
insensate," wrote Dr. Leonardis Koniaris, the leader of the study.
"However, with no monitoring and with little use of the paralytic agent,
any suffering of the inmate would be undetectable."
While the ADC insists that the initial dose of Thiopental is more than
enough to kill the condemned prisoner outright - about 10 times what a
patient might receive during surgical procedure - the Nooner lawsuit lists
a number of the state's 26 lethal injections in which the inmate showed
signs of consciousness up to several minutes after the 1st drug was
administered.
As detailed in the lawsuit, these include:
Ronald Gene Simmons, who was executed on June 25, 1990. Though the 1st
chemical was given to Simmons at 9:02 p.m., at 9:05 p.m., witnesses said
he called out "Oh! Oh!" and began to cough, continuing for the next 2
minutes. Simmons didn't become still until 9:07 p.m., well after the
process was under way. ADC employees adjusted the IV twice, and Simmons'
face and arm turned blue and then purple. He was not pronounced dead until
9:19 p.m.
Rickey Ray Rector, put to death on Jan. 24, 1992. Two minutes after the
execution began, according to one witness, Rector was conscious enough to
say, "I'm getting dizzy." Three minutes later, his lips began moving
rapidly, as if he was drawing shallow breaths. He was pronounced dead 19
minutes after the execution began, and that only after ADC personnel
punctured Rector's hands and arms 10 times before finally resorting to a
"cut down" - a deep incision in the arm - to locate a suitable vein.
Christina Riggs, put to death on May 2, 2000. Her execution was also
delayed while ADC personnel tried to locate a vein in her arm before
finally inserting the needles into her wrists. The execution proceeded,
but a full minute after the Thiopental began to flow, witnesses said that
Riggs was speaking, saying, "I love you, my babies."
On May 22 of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider a case
similar to Nooner's lawsuit. Tennessee death row inmate Abu-Ali
Abdur'Rahman had also challenged execution by lethal injection on the
grounds that the drugs used might violate the Eighth Amendment's
prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
That case seemed to bode ill for Nooner's suit. However, on June 12, the
Supreme Court ruled that a lawsuit filed on similar grounds by Florida
inmate Clarence Edward Hill could go forward. Citing the Miami University
study, Hill's suit challenged the three drugs used in executions, saying
they could cause pain if they were used. The Supreme Court decision in the
Hill case opens the door for a flood of other inmate challenges to the
methods and drugs used in the lethal injection process.
Meanwhile, the ACLU may challenge another facet of Arkansas execution
protocol: the opening and closing of curtains separating the execution
chamber and the witness gallery in order to conceal the pre- and
post-execution process and the identities of those participating in it.
According to current ADC procedure, the curtains remain closed while the
condemned inmate is led into the chamber and strapped down to the
execution table. After IV lines are in place and support personnel have
cleared the room, the curtains are opened. The prison warden reads the
death warrant, last statements are made, and - in a control room adjacent
to the death chamber - 2 executioners depress a series of syringes
containing the deadly chemicals. After the prisoner is pronounced dead by
the coroner, the curtains are closed again while the body is removed.
"We're taking a serious look at the public's right to view the entire
execution process from beginning to end," said ACLU executive director
Rita Sklar. "We're talking about the right of the public to know exactly
what happens during this process. That's our perspective."
Sklar said that with an execution date coming up, if the ACLU decides to
file something on the issue, they would likely do it as soon as possible.
(source: The Arkansas Times)
curtain.
Though victims' rights advocates have long complained that execution by
lethal injection is too placid a death for convicted killers, a federal
civil rights lawsuit filed by an Arkansas inmate argues the procedure can
conceal an agonizing demise. Detailing a number of problematic Arkansas
executions of years past, the lawsuit maintains that untrained medical
staff and the type of chemicals used to kill condemned inmates raise the
likelihood of an excruciatingly painful death.
Filed May 1 by Arkansas death row inmate Terrick Terrell Nooner, the
lawsuit lists several Arkansas Department of Correction officials as
plaintiffs, as well as "Does 1-50, Unknown Executioners" - the anonymous
support personnel who assist in and carry out the execution process.
Julie Brain, the federal public defender who is representing Nooner,
refused to comment for this article, citing the policy of her office. The
lawsuit is still pending, despite some twists and turns in other federal
courts.
In addition to questioning the use of untrained medical personnel to
administer the lethal injection process (doctors and nurses are barred
from participating in executions by the Hippocratic oath), another issue
addressed in Nooner's lawsuit is the three drugs used to anesthetize,
paralyze and finally stop the heart of the condemned. According to ADC
protocol outlined in the lawsuit, the first drug administered is 2 grams
of Thiopental, a fast-acting barbiturate that is supposed to render the
subject unconscious and anesthetized from pain. The IV lines are flushed
with saline, and then 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide are injected.
A paralytic, pancuronium bromide stops all voluntary muscular function in
the body, but does nothing to control either pain or conscious thought (as
such, it has featured prominently in many botched-anesthesia horror
stories in which patients were operated on while fully conscious and yet
unable to move). Yet another saline flush is followed by 150
milliequivalents of potassium chloride, which stops the heart, but which
the lawsuit points out feels like "a fire traveling through the vein" if
the subject is not properly anesthetized (as such, the American Veterinary
Medical Association prohibits the use of potassium chloride in euthanizing
animals unless the subject has reached a "surgical plane" of anesthesia
prior to the injection).
Nooner's objection to methods of lethal injection and the 3-drug
"thingytail" used to execute the condemned isn't new. Death penalty
opponents have long questioned whether inmates might feel pain during the
lethal injection process if the initial anesthetizing dose was botched -
especially when administered by untrained personnel.
The issue gained considerable steam in April 2005 when an article appeared
in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet. In the article, a
team of researchers from the University of Miami examined the toxicology
reports on 49 executed inmates from four states. They found that 43 of the
subjects had concentrations of Thiopental in the blood that didn't meet
the requirements for surgical anesthesia. Furthermore, in 21 of the
inmates, researchers concluded that the amount of Thiopental in the blood
was insufficient to render the subject unaware of his or her surroundings
- a state which the subsequent dose of pancuronium bromide would have
masked.
"We certainly cannot conclude that these inmates were unconscious and
insensate," wrote Dr. Leonardis Koniaris, the leader of the study.
"However, with no monitoring and with little use of the paralytic agent,
any suffering of the inmate would be undetectable."
While the ADC insists that the initial dose of Thiopental is more than
enough to kill the condemned prisoner outright - about 10 times what a
patient might receive during surgical procedure - the Nooner lawsuit lists
a number of the state's 26 lethal injections in which the inmate showed
signs of consciousness up to several minutes after the 1st drug was
administered.
As detailed in the lawsuit, these include:
Ronald Gene Simmons, who was executed on June 25, 1990. Though the 1st
chemical was given to Simmons at 9:02 p.m., at 9:05 p.m., witnesses said
he called out "Oh! Oh!" and began to cough, continuing for the next 2
minutes. Simmons didn't become still until 9:07 p.m., well after the
process was under way. ADC employees adjusted the IV twice, and Simmons'
face and arm turned blue and then purple. He was not pronounced dead until
9:19 p.m.
Rickey Ray Rector, put to death on Jan. 24, 1992. Two minutes after the
execution began, according to one witness, Rector was conscious enough to
say, "I'm getting dizzy." Three minutes later, his lips began moving
rapidly, as if he was drawing shallow breaths. He was pronounced dead 19
minutes after the execution began, and that only after ADC personnel
punctured Rector's hands and arms 10 times before finally resorting to a
"cut down" - a deep incision in the arm - to locate a suitable vein.
Christina Riggs, put to death on May 2, 2000. Her execution was also
delayed while ADC personnel tried to locate a vein in her arm before
finally inserting the needles into her wrists. The execution proceeded,
but a full minute after the Thiopental began to flow, witnesses said that
Riggs was speaking, saying, "I love you, my babies."
On May 22 of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider a case
similar to Nooner's lawsuit. Tennessee death row inmate Abu-Ali
Abdur'Rahman had also challenged execution by lethal injection on the
grounds that the drugs used might violate the Eighth Amendment's
prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
That case seemed to bode ill for Nooner's suit. However, on June 12, the
Supreme Court ruled that a lawsuit filed on similar grounds by Florida
inmate Clarence Edward Hill could go forward. Citing the Miami University
study, Hill's suit challenged the three drugs used in executions, saying
they could cause pain if they were used. The Supreme Court decision in the
Hill case opens the door for a flood of other inmate challenges to the
methods and drugs used in the lethal injection process.
Meanwhile, the ACLU may challenge another facet of Arkansas execution
protocol: the opening and closing of curtains separating the execution
chamber and the witness gallery in order to conceal the pre- and
post-execution process and the identities of those participating in it.
According to current ADC procedure, the curtains remain closed while the
condemned inmate is led into the chamber and strapped down to the
execution table. After IV lines are in place and support personnel have
cleared the room, the curtains are opened. The prison warden reads the
death warrant, last statements are made, and - in a control room adjacent
to the death chamber - 2 executioners depress a series of syringes
containing the deadly chemicals. After the prisoner is pronounced dead by
the coroner, the curtains are closed again while the body is removed.
"We're taking a serious look at the public's right to view the entire
execution process from beginning to end," said ACLU executive director
Rita Sklar. "We're talking about the right of the public to know exactly
what happens during this process. That's our perspective."
Sklar said that with an execution date coming up, if the ACLU decides to
file something on the issue, they would likely do it as soon as possible.
(source: The Arkansas Times)