Eighteen states use a paralytic as the second step in their lethal injection protocol. Multiple people executed in recent years using midazolam have shown signs of pain—gasping, heaving against restraints, choking, and coughing. In , Joseph Wood gasped and snorted for nearly two hours before he died; that same year, in Oklahoma, Clayton Lockett writhed on the execution table for 33 minutes before he died of a heart attack. Evidence of pulmonary edema has been presented to federal courts in a number of states, including Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Ohio.
Mike DeWine has put executions on hold due to concerns about pulmonary edema and a drug shortage. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether the pain associated with pulmonary edema violates the Eighth Amendment. The executioner had warned me not to panic as it was going to take a while to get the fluids in the body of the inmate tonight because he was going to push the drugs through very slowly.
Finally, the drug took effect and Jones took his last breath. June 28, Bert Leroy Hunter. Hunter had an unusual reaction to the lethal drugs, repeatedly coughing and gasping for air before he lapsed into unconsciousness. His head and chest jerked rapidly upward as far as the gurney restraints would allow, and then he fell quickly down upon the gurney. His body convulsed back and forth like this repeatedly.
November 7, Jose High. High was pronounced dead some one hour and nine minutes after the execution began. May 2, Joseph L. It took 22 minutes for the execution technicians to find a vein suitable for insertion of the catheter. A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Corrections told reporters that the execution team included paramedics, but not a physician or a nurse. Angel Diaz. After the first injection was administered, Mr. Diaz continued to move, and was squinting and grimacing as he tried to mouth words.
A second dose was then administered, and 34 minutes passed before Mr. Diaz was declared dead. At first a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Corrections claimed that this was because Mr. Diaz had some sort of liver disease. William Hamilton, stated that Mr. Christopher Newton. Newton, who weighted pounds, was declared dead almost two hours after the execution process began. June 26, John Hightower. It took approximately 40 minutes for the nurses to find a suitable vein to administer the lethal chemicals, and death was not pronounced until , 59 minutes after the execution process began.
June 4, Curtis Osborne. After a minute delay while the U. Supreme Court reviewed his final appeal, prison medical staff began the execution by trying to find suitable veins in which to insert the IV. The executioners struggled for 35 minutes to find a vein, and it took 14 minutes after the fatal drugs were administered before death was pronounced by two physicians who were inside the death chamber. Romell Broom pictured, after execution attempt.
Attempted Lethal Injection. Efforts to find a suitable vein and to execute Mr. Broom were terminated after more than two hours when the executioners were unable to find a useable vein in Mr. During the failed efforts, Mr. Broom winced and grimaced with pain. As of March 1, , Mr. Brandon Joseph Rhode. The execution had been delayed six days because a prison guard had given Rhode a razor blade, which Rhode used to attempt suicide.
Dennis McGuire. McGuire gasped for air for some 25 minutes while the drugs used in the execution, hydromorphone and midazolam, slowly took effect.
April 29, Clayton D. Despite prolonged litigation and numerous warnings from defense attorneys about the dangers of using an experimental drug protocol with the drug midazolam, Oklahoma went ahead and scheduled the executions of Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner. Plans for the execution and the drugs used were cloaked in secrecy, with the state refusing to release information about the source and efficacy of the lethal drugs, making it impossible to accurately predict the effects of the combination of drugs.
Nonetheless, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallon pressured the Courts to allow the execution, a bill was introduced in the Oklahoma House of Representatives to impeach the Justices who had voted to stay the execution, and the state Supreme Court allowed the executions to go forward. Lockett was the first who was scheduled to die.
After an hour, a vein was finally found in Mr. Ten minutes after the administration of the first drug, a sedative, the physician supervising the process whose very presence violated ethical standards of several medical organizations announced that the inmate was unconscious, and therefore ready to receive the other two drugs that would actually kill him.
Those two drugs were known to cause excruciating pain if the recipient was conscious. However, Mr. Lockett was not unconscious. Twenty minutes after the first drugs were administered, the Director the Oklahoma Department of Corrections halted the execution, and issued a two-week stay later extended by extensive litigation for the execution of Mr.
Lockett died 43 minutes after the execution began, of a heart attack, while still in the execution chamber. July 23, Joseph R. After the chemicals midazolam and hydromorphone were injected, Mr. Wood repeatedly gasped for one hour and 40 minutes before death was pronounced. During the ordeal, Mr. Wood was asleep and was simply snoring.
In the days before the execution, defense attorneys won a stay from the U. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on their motion to compel the state to reveal the source of the drugs and the training of the executioners. However, this stay was later overturned by the Supreme Court. December 9, Brian Keith Terrell. Terrell winced several times, apparently in pain. February 3, Brandon Jones.
He was 72 years old at the time of his execution. December 8, Ronald Bert Smith, Jr. Smith a former Eagle Scout and Army reservist was convicted of a murder of a convenience store clerk, and his jury at trial after anti-death penalty citizens were removed voted to recommend a punishment of life imprisonment without parole. Alabama, however, requires neither unanimity nor a majority jury vote before the trial judge can sentence a defendant to death.
Smith heaved, gasped and coughed while struggling for breath for 13 minutes after the lethal drugs were administered, and death was pronounced 34 minutes after the execution began. November 15, Alva Campbell. About two minutes later, media witnesses were told to leave without being told what was happening. Campbell has suffered from breathing problems related to a longtime smoking habit. His attorneys said he has required a walker, relied on a colostomy bag and needed breathing treatments four times a day.
February 22, Doyle Lee Hamm. Lethal Injection failed. Despite several warnings from defense counsel that it would be impossible to find a vein in which to insert the catheter Hamm suffered from advanced lymphatic cancer and carcinoma , the State went forward with the execution. For 2. This applies to diverse segments of our population, from young children to people with disabilities, disadvantages and declining health. In the most solemn cases, it requires us to speak on behalf of those who have been viciously murdered and no longer have any voice at all.
In Arizona, we must speak up for 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson, who was out riding her pink bicycle in when a convicted pedophile kidnapped and killed her. We must raise our voices for year-old Deana Bowdoin, an ASU student who was raped, strangled and stabbed in her Tempe apartment in We must also stand up for the Luna family.
In , a person disguised as a flower delivery man forced his way into their home and assaulted, tortured and killed them one by one, including 5-year-old Damien. We must stand up for each and every victim. I deeply sympathize with family members and support groups working to raise public awareness of beloved homicide victims. These folks should not, however, have to launch media campaigns, lobby government officials or beg anyone for justice.
Jurors have done their civic duty and we must all do ours. It has now been six years since Arizona carried out an execution, and the number of death-row inmates continues to increase. Today there are 21 convicted murderers who have exhausted their appeals.
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