Lethal Injection

As mentioned in my last post, James Robertson prefers to be put to death by lethal injection. This method seems simple and painless, but there have been complications in the past with previous inmates. Sometimes the procedure is not done right and the inmates experience an imminence amount of pain, and even survive the experience. According to a study done in 2014 by Austin Sarat, there have been 75 botched executions by lethal injection from 1890 to 2010. This study done by Austin brings into light the reality that although it seems simple, it does not always work. 

Lethal injection was sold to the government as a sort of medical procedure where a doctor would help an inmate "go to sleep" without waking up. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. First and foremost, doctors do not actually perform these procedures because it violates ethical codes. That means the person who is actually performing the procedure is not properly trained on how to perform the execution. It should also be noted that neither medical professionals or scientists came up with the "design" of the execution process. The process was actually created by a medical examiner in Oklahoma.

While the procedure of lethal injection varies from state to state, most follow a three step process; first is an anesthetic, then a paralytic, and finally a third drug to initiate cardiac arrest. The main issues in the procedure arrive at step two or three. If the inmate is not completely knocked out from step one, and they receive the second drug that paralyzes them, then they are put in an awful situation where you are awake, but you cannot move or breath. This essentially causes the sensation of suffocation, but the inmate can not tell anyone because their muscles are paralyzed. When step three is done, it feels as though fire is being put into your veins. Again very painful, but the inmate is unable to tell anyone. The point of step one was to knock you out so you don't feel steps two or three, but because untrained people are doing the procedures, step one can sometimes go wrong. 

The drug most commonly used to use for step one was called sodium thiopental, but it was no longer being made in America during 2011 and, and is no longer approved by the FDA for import into the country. Some states started buying the drugs illegally, including Arizona and Texas. Most states have given up on sodium thiopental and have turned to a drug called midazolam. This drug, however, is a sedative not a general anesthetic. This new drugs purpose is used to relax someone. This problem has been brought up in court, and the states use the testimony of Dr. Roswell Lee Evans to justify the use of midazolam over another anesthetic even though he has not done any studies with the drug in question.

In 2014, Inmate Clayton Lockett was one of the first prisoners in Oklahoma to use midazolam for his execution. This execution took 43 minutes. A phlebotomist tried to insert the needle in Lockett's arms, neck, groan, and foot. A few minutes after the execution began Lockett's attorney, who was there as a witness, said he began to notice Lockett trying to sit up. He noted that after Lockett's attempts to sit up, Lockett said "somethings wrong." The problem was that the initial drugs did not enter his veins, it instead entered the tissue. This means that he felt both the sensation of suffocation from the second drug, and fire in your veins from the third drug. This single case alone sheds light on how lethal injection can go terribly wrong, causing tremendous amounts of unnecessary pain.

Lethal injection was supposed to be an humane alternative to other executions procedures such as electrocution. The government and the public were sold on this idea that lethal injection was like putting someone to sleep, but if done improperly it is actually a gruesomely painful way to die. According to Austin's study mentioned earlier, lethal injection has the highest botch rate at 7.12%. Part of the problem is that doctors can't and won't participate in the execution procedures, so untrained people are trying to administer the drugs. Sometimes these untrained people fail, and the inmate is left with a gruesome death, or in some case a survivor of the experience with a really traumatic memory now stuck in their head. Another issue is that the original drug used as an anaesthetic can no longer be used, and the drug that is currently in place is not actually an anaesthetic.

Just because someone ends up on death row, just because they committed a heinous crime, does not mean that they should experience phenomenal amounts of pain when they are being put to death. Lethal injection is not a humane way to kill inmates, and it should not be used to do so. We were sold a lie so that we would be okay with killing a human being, taking away a life, because we thought it was not causing them harm. Now that we know it does, we need to bring this to Washington's attention and demand change. Better yet, we need to demand an end to the use of lethal injection forever.

If you want to know more about this subject, John Oliver has a really good youtube video on lethal injection that is worth watching.