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The three-drug lethal injection method used to execute U.S. inmates sometimes fails to properly work, resulting in painful and slow deaths that most likely violate the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment, according to a new analysis of dozens of executions.
Even if the drugs are properly administered, the method of legal injection seems to have been the cause of suffocation in some inmates while they were conscious and paralyzed, rather than stopping their hearts when they were sedated, researchers said.
The study concluded that the usual “one-size-fits-all” dose of the anesthesia does not consider a prisoner's weight and other important factors. Some prisoner's received too little, which caused the anesthetic to wear off before the completion of the execution.
“You wouldn't be able to use this protocol to kill a pig at the University of Miami” without additional proof that it worked like it's supposed to, said lead researcher Teresa Zimmers.
A More Humane Alternative?
Lethal injection has been implemented by 37 states because it is considered more cost effective and more humane than other methods of execution such as gas chambers and electrocution.
However, 11 states have halted lethal injection after critics claimed it is cruel and ineffective.
The new study analyzed the execution of 40 North Carolina inmates since 1984, including nearly a dozen in California and incomplete data from Virginia and Florida. Details like the dose of drugs inmates got, their weight, and the time it took for them to die were all evaluated.
Most states adopt three drugs: thiopental, which is an anesthetic; pancuronium bromide to paralyze the muscles; and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Each of the drugs is supposed to be lethal enough to kill by itself, but if it fails, the anesthetic should render the prisoner unconscious until the other medications do the job.
According to the study, the average time it took for a North Carolina inmate to die was 10 to 14 minutes. Based on calculations on each inmate's actual dose received and on his/her weight, researchers concluded that some weren't administered enough drugs.
“The person would feel either asphyxiation or the burning sensation associated with the potassium,” said Dr. Leonidas Koniaris, co-author of the study and a surgeon at the University of Miami. “The potassium would cause extreme discomfort, something like being put on fire.”
In some cases, even the final drug didn't always kill as intended. At least one inmate in California was in need of a second dose, the study reports.
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