LETHAL INJECTION AS A FORM OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

LETHAL INJECTION AS A FORM OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

            The use of lethal injection as a capital punishment form was first proposed late 19th century when the New York commission overseeing capital punishment incorporated its suggestion as a method which could seem more humane as compared to hanging which had been a common method during those days. Robert M. Bohm, who was working as a professor in the University of Florida at the time and who also had extensively written on capital punishment, the proposal eventually faced a challenge as the people would associate the hypodermic needle which had just been introduced as a very important tool with the killings as it was the one being used for administering the chemicals in this category (Farber, Davis, Weiner, Jordan, Boyer & Ubel, 2013).

During the World War II, this method had been used as one of Nazis’ methods to dispose those people who seemed extremely sick and the disabled prisoners, along with other methods of capital punishment like the firing squad and gas chamber (Denno, 2017). After the war, lethal injection faded away again from the view until late 1950 were when it was proposed in U.K… It was however opposed by Royal Commission on Capital Punishment following its objections from the medical community.

In 1977 afterward, Jay Chapman who was a medical examiner from Oklahoma proposed the method again but then giving the sequence which could be followed in executing death-row inmates. In his proposal, he stated that the sequence to be followed was supposed to be (Farber et al., 2015): administering barbiturate to the victims (purposely to anesthetize them), ejecting them with pancuronium bromide (aimed at paralyzing them and stopping their breathing system) and lastly, ejecting them with potassium chloride (to stop their heart). According to Ty Alper, who represented death-row victims and his associate director at Death Penalty Clinic in California University, the proposed procedure marked the end of barbiturate-only approach based on the argument that it had been modelled from what was being used on animals and therefore is the reason why people could not support it as a killing method for humans (Bedau, 2015). Lethal injection method gave executioners an option in addition to electrocution, which seemed to cause a lot of pain to the victims as they could be set on fire. Also, the paralyzed prisoners would no longer writhe around as they die, and this made it easier for the witnesses of execution.

The Oklahoma state legislature later approved Chapman’s proposal the same year after which it was adopted by some other states. In 1982, Texas became the first state to practice this form of capital punishment, by executing Charles Brooks who had been accused of killing David Gregory, a Fort Worth mechanic (Conquergood, 2012). Since then, lethal injection became the standard execution method in the U.S., although the other type’s capital punishment is still being carried out in some other states. Prisoners under different jurisdictions have also been allowed to choose their preferred execution method, and majority opts for lethal injection.

Lethal injection has had some controversy. Some states are still considering whether this form of capital punishment adheres to constitutional scrutiny which discourages any form of capital punishment which is cruel and unusual (Farber et al., 2013). On the account of the current case of Commissioner John D. Rees and the two solicitors, Ralph Baze and Thomas C. Bowling, the Supreme Court of United States suspended the constitutionality of this capital punishment form from the manner in which it was conducted in Kentucky Commonwealth. Major debates have focused on the dosing as well as the procedures followed in this method and whether the combinations which have been recommended for administering these three drugs truly results to a pain-free, fail-safe and timely death (Farber et al., 2013). Other issues have also been raised in regard to the “medicalization process” of implementation and the healthcare professional ethics of those participating in the process (Farber et al., 2013, p.49). Out of such and other similar issues, the fate of this method as a form of execution in United States has remained a dilemma and the outcomes of both the legislative and judicial rulings in concern to the matter are expected to might put lethal injection into cessation totally or propose alterations in regard to drug combinations or the administration procedures.

In general, out of the 1,107 prisoners who have been executed in the U.S. since the year 1977, 936 have been executed through lethal ejection method, as recorded by the Death Penalty Data Center (Groner, 2012). And just five victims have been executed by other ways since 2000, although these options are still recorded on the books in other states, like firing squad mainly in Utah, the hanging approach in Washington and gas chambers in Arizona. All summarized, two prisoners have been executed by the firing squad, three by hanging, and eleven by gas chamber since 1977 (Conquergood, 2012).

Outside the United States, Amnesty International research center indicated that lethal-injection method of capital punishment had been adopted in Guatemala, China, Thailand, and in the Philippines, although Guatemala and Philippines have recently outlawed the practice of capital punishment (Conquergood, 2012). Taiwan, despite allowing lethal-injection method, it has never executed anyone through it. China, whose execution rate surpasses any other nation, is slowly phasing out gunshot approach in favor of lethal injection. Most of the governments now consider lethal injection to be the most humane approach.

Of course, capital punishment through death penalty has raised a huge controversy for a long time, but lethal ejection approach has been considered an effective method among the others. According to the 8th amendment, “cruel and unusual punishment” is prohibited. But the fact is, all these methods have the ultimate goal of killing the victims. Diverse opinions have however indicated that lethal injection approach has emerged cruel in some cases. It does not always go smoothly (Bedau, 2015). For instance, in 2006, felon Angel Diaz was reported to have undergone a torturous encounter for almost thirty-four minutes from the moment he was injected until his eventual death. Reports by ABC News indicated that “After the first injection was administered, Mr. Diaz continued to move, and was squinting and grimacing as he tried to mouth words,” (Farber et al., 2013, p.87), this was associated with the deadly chemical being injected into his soft tissue, rather than directly to the veins .

Such experiences have however been rampant, ranging from the Emmitt Foster case, whose restraints were so tight to allow the drugs circulate on his legs and arms to several other cases whereby the executioners were not in a position of locating any usable vein to eject the IV.  A case of Joseph Rudolph Wood In 2014 at Arizona, it took almost two hours for him to die. “He was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m. after gasping for more than 600 times while he lay on the table.” (Farber et al., 2013, p.136).

Although lethal injection seems to be a quick and painless method of capital punishment, it depends on the procedure of administration, whether it is administered in the correct and effective way (Bedau, 2015). Several toxicology reports indicating insignificant amounts and wrong procedures of sodium thiopental administration have been the case from time to time. And this is an indication that the victims were not rightfully prepped and therefore experiencing the injection of the exceedingly painful potassium chloride. This has been retribution of the highest order, and the victims undergo extreme suffering by undergoing the cardiac arrest pains that result from the administration of the drugs (Farber et al., 2013).

An argument made against lethal injection condemning it of being inhuman and that people seemed to care for animals than other human beings by Michelle Fabio indicated that when the victims of capital punishment through lethal injection were being administered with the final dose and which was the most painful of the three (Bedau, 2015), no one seemed to bother and make sure that the inmate was deeply unconscious first. In the cases where the victim could be exposed to the final dose while still conscious, he or she could suffer so much before dying. That was inhuman because it exposed the victims through a lot of suffering (Farber et al., 2013).

If lethal injection has to remain as capital punishment, one approach to make it effective and humane is to have a physician who gets authorized through the necessary qualification to be executing the process instead of leaving it to the prison warden delegates and other unqualified people who understand nothing about the procedure. The physician will, therefore, be required to make sure that the procedures of this method go smoothly and that the drugs will be administered correctly to warrant the least painful experiences.

References

Bedau, H. A. (Ed.). (2015). The death penalty in America: Current controversies. Oxford             University Press.

Conquergood, L. D. (2012). Lethal theatre: Performance, punishment, and the death         penalty. Theatre Journal, 54(3), 339-367.

Denno, D. W. (2017). The lethal injection quandary: how medicine has dismantled the death        penalty. Fordham L. Rev., 76, 49.

Farber, N., Davis, E. B., Weiner, J., Jordan, J., Boyer, E. G., & Ubel, P. A. (2015). Physicians’      attitudes about involvement in lethal injection for capital punishment. Archives of   internal medicine, 160(19), 2912-2916.

Groner, J. I. (2012). Lethal injection: a stain on the face of medicine. BMJ: British Medical             Journal, 325(7371), 1026.