2008 Woodie Awards
States delay executions in response to lethal injection debate
Claire Costantino
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News/Features
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A voluntary nationwide moratorium on executions is emerging in light of the Supreme Court's agreement to hear a case concerning the constitutionality of lethal injection. This case, Baze v. Rees, concerns the humaneness of the current solution used in lethal injections. Many opponents of lethal injection claim that this most popular execution process can be so painful that it violates the eighth amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Although this de facto halt on executions is a temporary victory for progressives, the long-term success of this latest effort is doubtful. The current debate has raised awareness about some of the more fundamental problems with capital punishment, but there is a possibility this controversy could simply conclude with the advent of a newer, less controversial method of execution.
Three drugs - sodium thiopental, pancuronium and potassium chloride - form the current "chemical cocktail" used in state executions. Critics of this method say that if the first chemical does not fully anesthetize prisoners, the convicts may be fully or partially aware of the subsequent paralysis, asphyxiation and forced cardiac arrest resulting from the next two injections. There are several documented cases that lend credence to these claims. In a CNN interview with the injection procedure's creator, Dr. Jay Chapman, he agreed "many problems can arise." Despite these revelations, many death-penalty advocates reserve judgment on this method's application to humans.
More and more states are delaying executions until a federal decision on lethal injection is reached. States such as California, Illinois, Tennessee and Texas have all agreed to temporarily stop setting execution dates. If even Texas has halted its executions then the claims against lethal injection must have real teeth. Some death penalty opponents, however, worry this new avenue of opposition is a purely temporary victory. They believe the anti-death penalty movement should spend less energy fighting battles about the humaneness of methods and instead more energy on inherent moral objections to capital punishment.
Three drugs - sodium thiopental, pancuronium and potassium chloride - form the current "chemical cocktail" used in state executions. Critics of this method say that if the first chemical does not fully anesthetize prisoners, the convicts may be fully or partially aware of the subsequent paralysis, asphyxiation and forced cardiac arrest resulting from the next two injections. There are several documented cases that lend credence to these claims. In a CNN interview with the injection procedure's creator, Dr. Jay Chapman, he agreed "many problems can arise." Despite these revelations, many death-penalty advocates reserve judgment on this method's application to humans.
More and more states are delaying executions until a federal decision on lethal injection is reached. States such as California, Illinois, Tennessee and Texas have all agreed to temporarily stop setting execution dates. If even Texas has halted its executions then the claims against lethal injection must have real teeth. Some death penalty opponents, however, worry this new avenue of opposition is a purely temporary victory. They believe the anti-death penalty movement should spend less energy fighting battles about the humaneness of methods and instead more energy on inherent moral objections to capital punishment.
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