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Report concludes lethal injection cruel, unusual

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 24, 2007

The drugs used to execute prisoners in the United States sometimes fail to work as planned, causing slow and painful deaths that probably violate constitutional bans on cruel and unusual punishment, a medical review of dozens of executions concludes.

Even when administered properly, the three-drug lethal injection method appears to have caused some inmates to suffocate while they were conscious and unable to move, instead of having their hearts stopped while they were sedated, scientists said in a report published Monday by the online journal PLoS Medicine.

Lethal injection has been adopted by 37 states as a cheaper and more humane alternative to electrocution, gas chambers and other execution methods. But 11 states have suspended its use after opponents alleged it is ineffective and cruel.

Officials with the Florida De-partment of Corrections agreed this year to study its lethal injection procedures after the execution last year of Angel Diaz took 34 minutes, more than twice as long as normal.

Executions have been on hold for months as DOC officials continue to study the issue.

DOC spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff said state officials had not seen the new report and couldn't comment on how much impact it may have on their study.

The new review was written by many of the same authors who touched off controversy when they published a 2005 report suggesting many inmates were conscious and possibly suffering when the last of the drugs was given.

That report was criticized for its methodology, which relied on blood samples taken from prisoners hours after executions.

The new paper looked at the executions of 40 prisoners in North Carolina since 1984 and about a dozen in California, plus incomplete information from Florida and Virginia. It analyzed details such as the dose the inmates received, their weight and the time they needed to die.

Death penalty proponents said the conclusions were based on scant scientific evidence.

Times staff writer Chris Tisch contributed to this report.

[Last modified April 24, 2007, 01:17:32]