Death penalties by lethal infection under serious question

Executions in antiquity

Carol Forsloff --The usual and customary death penalty is meted out by lethal injection in most of the
states, and in some cases it has been put on hold because of problems with some of the chemicals used as well as at times the limited supply of them.

Several years ago Kentucky Governor Steven Beshear said he wouldn't be able to proceed to sign death warrants for two inmates because the drug sodium thiopental, a key component of the
lethal injection protocol, was not in sufficient supply.

Just like food, there is an expiration date for the drug, it seems, which that year was to expire on October.  At the time the Department of Corrections announced it did not expect a new supply to come in for several months according to death penalty experts,

The company Hospira was then the only supplier of the drug in the United States..  It's motto was "Advancing Wellness."

When the drug is in short supply, the FDA would have to sign off on another supplier before others can enter the business of providing death penalty drugs.

DreamPharma, a company out of London, then entered the business.  It came under fire when tainted drugs were found.  In addition, the drug was found ineffective in sedating a number of prisoners were found still conscious and not fully sedated.  They were said to have died in excruciating pain before the final two drugs were used.


Oklahoma decided to make a substitution for the drug in order to execute Jeffrey Matthews, also
because of concerns about whether or not the drug in hand was of the right constitution or mixture and didn't have any impurities.  A stay had to be ordered for officials to make a decision. Amnesty International said at the time Oklahoma should just give  up trying to execute Matthews, given the issues about lethal injections anyway and the issues regarding this pending execution.  This was especially true, declared Amnesty International given the questionable evidence in relationship to Matthews' guilt.

The same ingredients for the death cocktail is used by virtually all the states in their executions by lethal injections.

Lethal injections came under fire in 2007 because of botched executions, including needles being improperly placed under the arm of one prisoner and the length of time it had taken to execute others.

These are some of the issues that have led professionals to question the death penalty and to examine other options for punishing those who are found guilty of especially serious crimes.