Animals are treated more humanely than people who are executed
by lethal injection in the US. Many prisoners may be conscious
and suffer severe pain, post-mortems suggest. Since 1976, the US
has killed 788 people by lethal injection. This typically
involves injecting sodium thiopental to induce anaesthesia,
pancuronium bromide to relax muscles and finally potassium
chloride to stop the heart. Post-mortem blood levels of sodium
thiopental in 49 executed prisoners revealed that 43 had levels
lower than those required during surgery. Of these, 21 may have
been conscious when the potassium chloride was injected (The
Lancet, vol 365, p 1412). Without adequate anaesthesia, the
authors say people would experience asphyxiation, severe burning
sensations, massive muscle cramping and cardiac arrest. This
would constitute "cruel and unusual" punishment, forbidden by
the Eighth Amendment. Paralysed by the muscle relaxant, people
would not be able to indicate their pain - the reason why
relaxants ... To continue reading t