"A judge's ruling that the "humane" drug cocktail used to execute prisoners may trigger excruciating pain is a boost for opponents, writes David Rennie in Washington
A passionate debate has been sparked in the United States by findings that the "humane" drug cocktail used to execute most prisoners may in some cases trigger excruciating pain while paralysing inmates so they cannot cry out.
Since its introduction in 1982, death by lethal injection has largely swept aside execution methods such as the electric chair and the gallows, spreading to all but one of the 38 states that practise capital punishment.
Witnesses at scores of executions have said death by lethal injection is a remarkably calm, almost peaceful affair. But death penalty opponents have launched a campaign to prove that the impression of calm may be false, caused by the use of a powerful muscle relaxant that paralyses those being executed.
The drug, pancuronium bromide, is banned in some states for use in putting down pets and strongly discouraged by the American Veterinary Medical Association with a warning that if used without perfect anaesthesia an animal "may perceive pain and distress after it is immobilised"."
-- William T Goodall Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in
Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
-George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
_______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
