 |
|
Register Domains
|
|
|
|
|
Namibian Towns
|
|
|
|
|
Languages
|
|
|
| | |
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (AP) -- When Florida and other states changed their method of execution from the electric chair to lethal injection, it was viewed by many as a more humane method.
But now some condemned prisoners, including Clarence Hill who is scheduled to die Wednesday, are saying the chemicals used in the process can cause the inmate extreme pain and thereby violate the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Hill, 48, who killed a police officer during a bank robbery in Pensacola in 1982, was strapped to a gurney with IV tubes running into his arms in late January when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and stopped his execution.
The high court later ruled 9-0 that Hill should be able to file a challenge to Florida's execution procedure and sent the case back to lower courts to rule on Hill's claims. His claims were all rejected.
Hill's fate now rests again with the high court, where his attorney has filed an appeal and a request that Hill's execution be stayed until a hearing can be held on whether inmates suffer extreme pain when they are executed. Attorneys for the state argue that Hill waited too long to challenge the execution process and his execution should go forward.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that he believes the Supreme Court will turn Hill down.
"We've had 16 cases of lethal injection that have taken place over the last years and there have been chances for appeal and the process has been upheld. So my expectation is that the execution will go as planned," Bush said.
In his filing with the U.S. Supreme Court, Hill's attorney, D. Todd Doss, argued that the scheduling of Hill's execution was to prevent him from raising the claims about Florida's execution process.
"This was done to preclude judicial resolution and violated Mr. Hill's right to due process," Doss wrote.
As with most of the 38 states which use lethal injection, Florida uses three chemicals in its execution procedure -- sodium pentothal, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. The first drug is a painkiller. The second one paralyzes the inmate and the third causes a fatal heart attack.
An article published in 2005 in Lancet, a British medical journal, argues that prisoners may have experienced awareness and unnecessary suffering because they were not properly sedated. One argument is that the pancuronium bromide could cause the inmate to be in extreme pain but not able to communicate it because he is paralyzed.
Deborah Denno, a professor of law at Fordham University, said lethal injection is not what many lawmakers and the public think -- that it is like putting an animal to sleep.
"We think the process is inhumane and tortuous, the result of medical folly, political compromise," she said.
Dr. Nik Gravenstein, a professor and chairman of the department of anesthesia at the University of Florida College of Medicine, said there are many possible problems in an execution which could cause an inmate pain.
He said these include the improper insertion of the IV tube by people who are not properly trained; the improper mixing of the execution chemicals, and the reaction of the heart to the sodium pentothal which in some cases could prevent the muscle relaxant from being spread through the body.
"There are myriad opportunities for errors," he said.
But Dr. Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, said the amount of sodium pentothal used by Florida would render most people unconscious.
"The protocol, as written, will keep the inmate from feeling any pain," Dershwitz said.
Florida's protocol calls for two grams of sodium pentothal.
"Even two grams will cause the average person to sleep for two hours," Dershwitz said, noting that most executions last 15 to 30 minutes. "The likelihood of an inmate experiencing any pain is truly negligible."
| Cop-killer again faces execution by injection | Log-in or register a new user account | 0 Comments |
|
| Comments are statements made by the person that posted them.
They do not necessarily represent the opinions of the site editor. |
| |
|
|
News Categories
|
|
|
|
|
Main Menu
|
|
|
|
|
Login
|
|
|
|
|
Online
|
|
|
|
|
Ads
|
|
|
| |
