It appears the U.S. is actually desperate for the influx of drugs… for once
The United States of America is the only remaining developed western nation to utilise capital punishment as a means of dealing with severe criminal offences. That notion alone encapsulates how much a part of the American psyche the death penalty appears to be. Because of its prominence within the culture, the goings-on within death row are usually by no means alien to the public. Figures are frequently released as to how many people are being executed, in which state and via which method. However, seemingly due to particular pressures, certain recent experiences have illustrated the struggling nature of the American execution system and in particular the method of lethal injection.
Out of the five available methods of execution, the most popular by far is the lethal injection. Used almost ubiquitously throughout 35 states – as opposed to the second most popular, the electric chair, which is currently only used in eight – the injection traditionally forms a three-pronged method.
As described by deathpenaltyinfo.org, “The inmate is (firstly) injected with sodium thiopental – an anesthetic, which puts the inmate to sleep. Next flows pavulon or pancuronium bromide, which paralyzes the entire muscle system and stops the inmate’s breathing. Finally, the flow of potassium chloride stops the heart. Death results from anesthetic overdose and respiratory and cardiac arrest while the condemned person is unconscious.”
The traditional method has generally been the cause of little concern since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 after a four-year suspension in which the controversial matter was said to be in need of being readdressed. The current instability of the lethal injection system however, seems to stem from more recent years.
In 2011, the global pharmaceutical company Hospira, which was the US’s only real source of sodium thiopental, announced a complete halt in the production of the drug at their plant in Italy. In their press release dated 21st January 2011, they stated that they simply could not “take the risk” because they could “be held liable by the Italian authorities if the product [was] diverted for the use of capital punishment”. This then led to a sharp decline in the reserves of sodium thiopental, particularly in Texas where proportionately more executions are held annually than any other state.
So subsequently, an alternative was required and this substitute was and to this day still is the fast-acting barbiturate pentobarbital. The production of this drug, also known by its brand name Nembutal, was the sole responsibility of Danish drug manufacturers Lundbeck. However, striking parallels with the aforementioned company, they ceased their distribution of this drug to American prisons in July 2011 under pressure from human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Reprieve. The company ensured their product would not be used for lethal injections by re-establishing their distribution networks and legally committing companies to be ineligible to resell the drug into the American penal system. Lundbeck chief executive Ulf Wiinberg claimed: “Everyone buying the product must sign a paper stating they will not sell it on to prisons.”
McGuire terrifyingly gasped for air for 15 minutes
This sharp, immediate decline in the production and distribution of the drugs has evidently led to some highly contentious recent issues as prison systems continue to execute inmates using lethal injections. It’s almost as if the lack of supply is publicly catching up on them. On 16th January 2014, the state of Ohio graphically, but albeit successfully, executed convicted murderer and rapist Dennis McGuire using a ‘never before used two-drug cocktail’ consisting of the sedative midazolam and painkiller hydromorphone. Observers said McGuire was to have terrifyingly gasped for air for 15 minutes, although multiple other sources (including McGuire’s son) state it was anywhere up to 25 minutes, before he was finally pronounced dead. Subsequently his family plan to sue the state of Ohio for a breach of the Eighth Amendment to the US constitution, which prohibits the use of cruel or unusual punishment.
While equally, in Texas on 3rd April 2014, Tommy Lynn Sells was executed with a supposed fresh supply of pentobarbital. Though when Sells’s lawyer requested that the information concerning the origin of the supply should be disclosed to ensure that the drug is of verifiable quality, and that his client is protected from ‘unconstitutional pain or suffering’, the state prison officials argued that the pharmacy that provided the drug must remain anonymous in order to avoid threats of violence. This came after a compounding pharmacy received threats after records were made public that it had supplied Texan prisons.
With the knowledge that the state of Oklahoma announced on 1st April that a new ‘untested’ three part combination, consisting of midazolam, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride will be used in the execution of at least two inmates later this month, it is easy to imagine that the apparently stable days of the lethal injection are over. Ultimately, it appears the States have succumbed to the harsher side of the supply and demand system. It seems more likely that the future of the lethal injection is far removed from the days in which inmates would peacefully fall out of consciousness before finally meeting their maker.
While all those who are still in line to take the journey must face up against two unknowns: not just ‘what is the experience of dying like?’, but also ‘what exactly is it that is going to kill me’? I expect we’ll be hearing more disturbing final words that are along the same lines as Michael Lee Wilson’s, who was executed in Oklahoma in January using a concoction including pentobarbital. Within 20 seconds of the mixture being injected into his body, he reportedly said: “I feel my whole body burning.”
Images: Flickr, Wikipedia
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