The Last Sunset

Lethal Injection... Painless? Humane? Flawless?

To be frank, this blog's initial purpose is to express my views when I was undergoing General Paper in JC. If you look at the archieves, I have some factual and subjective posts. Yeah... you may realise why most of my posts are about Crime and Punishment, Law and the Death Penalty. Cause that's one of my interest in life. To study about Crime and Punishment especially allows me to get more in tuned of the legal system around the world, and hopefully, help me pursue my secondary goal - to be a Policeman. About the Death Penalty? It's because I absolutely detest it... from the process to the intent of it... That's why I want to read up more about such topics to have a broader sense of why such ridiculous (IMHO) things exist.

For some time now, I have been questioning myself on the effectiveness of Lethal Injection, which has become one of the most common method of execution around the world. All of the 38 states in US that allow Capital Punishment (including US Military and US Government) utilises Lethal Injection as the primary method of execution (some states has a secondary method in which the prisoner is allowed to choose from). For your information, prior to 2008, Nebraska is the only state in US that used Electrocution as its sole method of execution. It was rendered unconstitutional then, but approved Lethal Injection in 2009. Furthermore, some Asian countries like the Phillippines, Thailand and China also uses it.

I suppose one reason why Lethal Injection got so popular is because its relatively painless way to murder the inmate. Just some brief information of the process. Firstly, the inmate is strapped onto a gurney. An IV line will be inserted into each arm (One is the primary line, whereby the other one is for backup in case the former fails due to occlusion of the needles, etc). The drugging process can be started either manually or by flipping a switch on a machine. Typically, 3 drugs are used. The first is Sodium Thiopentel, which is an ultra-short action barbiturate that renders unconsiousness in a few seconds (Think of it like putting a person to sleep before an operation). Next up, Pancuronium Bromide, a paralysing agent is injected. This is a muscle relaxant, which completely paralyses the muscles in the body. Finally, a toxic agent, Potassium Chloride, is given. This stops the victim's heart and thus, cause death through cadiac arrest.

On the surface, this method of execution may seem painless, since the victim is put to sleep and thus, would be unable to feel the effects of the other 2 drugs. However, to be considered flawlessly painless would be an overrated statement. There have been occasions whereby the first drug is not injected properly, or the prisoner's body did not react normally to it. Thus, the inmate would not be rendered unconsiousness totally. This will allow him to feel the excruciating pain of the heart attack and yet unable to move his body (due to the paralysing agent). Thus, the victim would be left to die knowing that he is in extreme pain and not able to move his body.

To keep is short (this is not meant to be an argument, just some personal opinion), Lethal Injection would only be effective and painless if Sodium Thiopental is injected with the correct dossage and that the prisoner's body would react normally to how it should react.

Acknowledgement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_injection