Posted on 04/30/2014 7:44:56 AM PDT by armydawg505
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — A botched execution that used a new drug combination left an Oklahoma inmate writhing and clenching his teeth on the gurney Tuesday, leading prison officials to halt the proceedings before the inmate's eventual death from a heart attack. Clayton Lockett, 38, was declared unconscious 10 minutes after the first of the state's new three-drug lethal injection combination was administered. Three minutes later, though, he began breathing heavily, writhing, clenching his teeth and straining to lift his head off the pillow. The blinds were eventually lowered to prevent those in the viewing gallery from watching what was happening in the death chamber, and the state's top prison official eventually called a halt to the proceedings. Lockett died of a heart attack a short time later, the Department of Corrections said. "It was a horrible thing to witness. This was totally botched," said Lockett's attorney, David Autry......
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
And justice was served.
There is a problem with using gas, in that to some extent, a painless death requires the cooperation of the condemned. That is, they are supposed to try and hold their breath, and then inhale a bunch of concentrated cyanide, which kills them very quickly.
However, there was a case not too long ago, where the condemned continued to breathe normally. He started breathing harder, and his skin turned flush, as he very painfully asphyxiated.
A trouble with freon is that it can cause nausea and vomiting as well as seizures. If it was just a case of knocking them out quickly until they asphyxiate, then ordinary carbon dioxide or nitrogen gas would do the trick.
As long as the inmate dies during the shift I think it is fine.
If they had to come back another shift there might be questions. Even then Im sure they can give him something to last until they come back.
Im sure there has been many executions throught history that took about an hour.
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