ST. LOUIS (AP) – The nation’s third botched execution in six months offers more evidence for the courts that lethal injection carries too many risks and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, death-row lawyers and other opponents said Thursday.
Death-penalty opponents say the execution of an Arizona inmate who took two hours to die shows that state experiments with different drugs and dosages are a callous trial-and-error process. The result: Every few months, an inmate gasps, chokes and takes an unusually long time to die.
“These executions are experiments on human subjects,” said Cheryl Pilate, an attorney for several Missouri death-row inmates. “The potential for things to go wrong is almost unlimited.”
Lethal injection has been challenged in the courts many times, mostly without success. The biggest recent challenge for death-penalty states has been obtaining lethal chemicals after major drugmakers stopped selling drugs for use in executions. That forced states to find alternative injection drugs.
Adding to the concern from opponents is the fact that the drugs are mostly purchased from loosely regulated compounding pharmacies. Arizona, Texas, Florida and Missouri refuse to name the supplier and offer no details about how the drugs are tested or how executioners are trained.