SMRs and AMRs

Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Drug cocktail in US executions banned from use on animals, says report

• Bipartisan thinktank report urges 'substantial revisions' to process
• Report notes pre-existing state law banning method for animals

Paul Lewis in Washington
theguardian.com, Wednesday 7 May 2014 00.00 EDT

An injection of chemicals used to execute death row inmates can cause such excruciating pain that veterinarians are banned from using them to put down animals, according to one of the most thorough reviews ever undertaken of the administration of the death penalty.

The report, endorsed by a range of criminal justice experts, urges states have the death penalty to kill an inmate with a single chemical overdose, rather than the “three drug cocktail” used in a series of botched deaths, including Oklahoma's disturbing execution of Clayton Lockett last week.

Lockett’s attempted execution, which took one hour and 44 minutes from the moment he was first restrained on the gurney, prompted outrage across the world.

He was administered a drug cocktail in dosages never before tried in American executions, and complications arose after officials were unable to locate a suitable vein. Witnesses saw him writhing and groaning on the gurney, and it was a full 43 minutes after the drugs were administered before he died.

(More here.)

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