I don't advocate torturing someone, but the idea that the execution of someone should be a 100% painless experience just doesn't seem reasonable.
Posted on 01/27/2011 7:48:15 AM PST by Brookhaven
Drugs used for lethal injection in the US which were supplied by a west London-based pharmaceutical company may have been defective, leading to potentially agonising deaths for prisoners, according to an expert on execution.
Dream Pharma, a small company run from the back of the Elgone Driving Agency in Horn Lane, Acton, west London, is understood to have supplied the anaesthetic sodium thiopental which was used in the execution of convicted murderer Emmanuel Hammond in Georgia on Tuesday.
Before the execution Mark Heath filed a sworn declaration which raised concerns over whether the thiopental sold to Georgia Department of Corrections "lacked efficacy".
He said it was "extremely troubling" that after triple-murderer Brandon Rhode was injected with thiopental during his execution in September, his eyes remained open. Some reports suggested his eyes darted around the room before staring blankly at the ceiling of the death chamber.
The thiopental used in his execution is also understood to have been supplied by Dream Pharma.
Dr Heath said this was "very unusual and surprising" and raised the concern that either the thiopental was incorrectly administered or the integrity of the drug was "significantly compromised".
Sodium thiopental is used first to induce a coma, followed by pancuronium bromide which paralyses the muscles, and potassium chloride which stops the heart.
Dr Heath said: "If the thiopental was inadequately effective Mr Rhode's death would certainly have been agonising. There is no dispute that the asphyxiation caused by pancuronium and the caustic burning sensation caused by potassium would be agonising in the absence of adequate anaesthesia."
He said the origin of the thiopental used in the executions was "highly unusual". He said the vials were labelled as having come from a company called Link Pharmaceuticals which became Archimedes Pharma in 2006, adding: "This raises the concern that the batch, if it is indeed thiopental, may contain expired thiopental."
Questioned ahead of Hammond's execution, Dream Pharma managing director Mehdi Alavi, who describes his company as an independent pharmaceutical wholesaler, said he did not want to comment on the matter.
I don't advocate torturing someone, but the idea that the execution of someone should be a 100% painless experience just doesn't seem reasonable.
A .45 bullet works just as well, and tends to be faster.
You mean the dude survived?
The irony of this sticky as honey..
I agree. The next thing you know, we’re going to have to figure out how to keep from hurting their feelings when they read the sentencing out loud.
LOL!
I’ve heard a guillotine is pretty quick. I also suspect this is a backdoor attempt at elimanating the death penalty.
Rhode was convicted in 2000 of the slayings of 37-year-old Steven Moss and his two children 11-year-old Bryan Moss and 15-year-old Kristin Moss after a robbery at their home went badly wrong. Mom and wife Gerri Moss found her family slain by a total of thirteen bullets when she returned home from work.
British Queens laid their heads on the block and didn’t whimper like these bad ass dudes. Tip the Axeman well and you won’t feel a thing.
I have said it before and I will say it again. The Chinese method of a bullet to the back of the brain is cheap, quick and although I don’t know for certain, if there is any pain at all, it wont last long. By the way, the chinese bill the convicted mans family for the bullet.
This has reached the point of absurdity.
Shoot them, hang them, gas them - I don’t care. Unless someone wants to slow boil them, I don’t want to hear about “cruel and unusual”.
We’re killing them. Instead of worrying about their last 15 minutes of life, let’s start considering their victims !
Trying to care--trying--trying...
The guillotine was originally developed as a more compasionate method of execution. That's irony.
Yeah...I wonder if his victim's eyes darted around the room too before they died....
Do they kill the person being executed? If so then they aren't defective.
Ol’ Sparky worked just fine.
Amen, FRiend.
Some things should have never went out of style.
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