Post by SoulTrainOz on Jul 9, 2006 6:47:30 GMT -5
The controversy involves the 3 drugs used in putting an inmate to death.
The 1st, sodium pentothal, causes the inmate to lose consciousness. Pancuronium bromide paralyzes the muscles. And finally potassium chloride is used to induce cardiac arrest, stopping the heart.
Death row inmate advocate Betsey Wright says, "We're talking about government following governmental procedures and following constitutions and we want to be lawful and it's not appropriate for the government to be torturing anybody."
Wright a longtime death penalty opponent says the sodium pentothal dose is not enough and that many times inmates remain conscious and endures severe pain until the end.
But the state attorney general's office says the dosage is similar or identical to the other states that administer lethal injections, and none have ever been found unconstitutional.
Attorney General Press Secretary Matt DeCample says, "The amount of sodium pentothal that Arkansas uses in a lethal injection is between 5 and 8 times the amount that you or I would receive if we went into surgery."
There is also debate about another chemical that Wright claims was banned by veterinarians because it caused too much pain on animals. DeCample says that's not the case. "The American Veterinarians Medical Association actually issued a statement requesting that the report that argument is based on stop being misused; because the facts are being misrepresented."
Wright disagrees, "No one is saying don't use lethal injection; no one is saying that at all. They're saying make sure that we have people that know what they're doing."
Now it will be left up to the courts to decide whether or not it's
constitutional.
No word on when that case will be heard in Judge Susan Webber Wright's court.
The state of Missouri put a moratorium on lethal injections after it was found the surgeon administering the lethal injections was dyslexic and had problems with figures.
(source: Today's THV)
The 1st, sodium pentothal, causes the inmate to lose consciousness. Pancuronium bromide paralyzes the muscles. And finally potassium chloride is used to induce cardiac arrest, stopping the heart.
Death row inmate advocate Betsey Wright says, "We're talking about government following governmental procedures and following constitutions and we want to be lawful and it's not appropriate for the government to be torturing anybody."
Wright a longtime death penalty opponent says the sodium pentothal dose is not enough and that many times inmates remain conscious and endures severe pain until the end.
But the state attorney general's office says the dosage is similar or identical to the other states that administer lethal injections, and none have ever been found unconstitutional.
Attorney General Press Secretary Matt DeCample says, "The amount of sodium pentothal that Arkansas uses in a lethal injection is between 5 and 8 times the amount that you or I would receive if we went into surgery."
There is also debate about another chemical that Wright claims was banned by veterinarians because it caused too much pain on animals. DeCample says that's not the case. "The American Veterinarians Medical Association actually issued a statement requesting that the report that argument is based on stop being misused; because the facts are being misrepresented."
Wright disagrees, "No one is saying don't use lethal injection; no one is saying that at all. They're saying make sure that we have people that know what they're doing."
Now it will be left up to the courts to decide whether or not it's
constitutional.
No word on when that case will be heard in Judge Susan Webber Wright's court.
The state of Missouri put a moratorium on lethal injections after it was found the surgeon administering the lethal injections was dyslexic and had problems with figures.
(source: Today's THV)