Trial begins over Arkansas' use of sedative in executions

[TexasTowelie]

LITTLE ROCK — An attorney for a group of death row inmates challenging Arkansas’ use of a sedative in executions told a federal judge Tuesday that the state’s lethal injection process with the drug causes condemned inmates to feel as though they’re being lit on fire. An attorney for the state said the prisoners haven’t proven why the judge should split from other court rulings upholding the drug’s use.

The trial over Arkansas’ use of midazolam in executions began two years after the state raced to try to put to death eight inmates before its batch of the drug expired. Arkansas executed four of the eight inmates in 2017, but courts halted the other four executions. The trial, which is expected to last two weeks, will revisit two of those executions, which inmates’ attorneys say were problematic.

An attorney for the inmates called midazolam an “inept” sedative that doesn’t render someone fully unconscious before the other lethal injection drugs are administered.

“For all the midazolam is worth, the state might as well strangle the prisoners and burn them to death,” John Williams, an assistant federal public defender, said during opening arguments before U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker.

Read more: https://www.swtimes.com/news/20190423/trial-begins-over-arkansas-use-of-sedative-in-executions
(Fort Smith Times Record)

[mr_lebowski]

1. I don't get why they don't just give people massive OD's of heroin or other opioid?

They kill 1000's a year, we know it works ... what, they just don't want 'em to die feeling good?

Barring that, why not use sodium pentothal to knock 'em out, like when you get surgery?

I mean, they can cut open your ribcage w/a bone saw and play with your heart ... while you're ALIVE, and you don't even feel it. Surely you won't feel the drugs that actually kill you ... while you're 'out' on sodium pent?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. I have a similar question.

I realize I don't know anything at all on this topic, but I've been present when my cats have been euthanized, and it seems pretty clear that they did not suffer at all. While there is a significant difference in body weight between a cat and a human, surely similar protocals can be followed.

Plus, I know someone who obtained drugs via the internet to commit suicide, and apparently did not suffer in any way.

I do want to state that I am utterly opposed to pre-meditated murder, otherwise known as capital punishment.

[safeinOhio]

3. Asphyxiation by nitrous oxide gas.

Cheap, safe and fun.