What is the cocktail of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride used for? Hard for anyone without a proper background in science to guess but not at all tough to start a debate on when you know that these are the three drugs that comprise the lethal injection that is used for the execution of inmates in the States. USA is one of the few nations that follow the death penalty and execution by lethal injection. But that policy has never ever been taken for granted and once again lethal injection is under review in the US.
The US Supreme Court is to review execution by lethal injection after two Kentucky inmates brought the much debatable issue to the surface. Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr claim that lethal injection amounts to ‘cruel and unusual punishment’- a violation of the Eighth amendment of the Constitution and have brought the case to the doors of the highest court in the US.
This is of course not the first time that an inmate has raised the hot issue but this time there is a genuinely strong feeling that the Supreme Court will shift away from favoring lethal injection. However, discussion on whether lethal injections can be constitutionally justified would commence in January and the final result is not expected before spring.
The US Constitution allows the individual states to formulate their own laws. This means that while one state can perceive death penalty constitutionally viable, another could easily take the opposite view. 38 states in the US follow capital punishment and all but one of these states use lethal injections to execute the guilty. Since capital punishment resumed in 1976, over 1,000 people have been executed in the US. The latest execution came this Tuesday night when Michael Richard was put to death for raping and slaying a nurse in 1986.
Critics against the death penalty bring one ethical dimension to their argument. They say that since the State doesn’t have the power to conceive life, it cannot take life too. They further add that the person undergoing lethal injection execution could suffer excruciating pain should enough anesthetic be not supplied to him and the sad part is that he won’t be able to signal any distress or pain during his execution. The fresh controversy has propelled 10 US states, including California, to put executions on hold.
But for how long? That’s the precise question that parties on the anti-lethal injection of the divide are asking. Previously there have been nationalwide debates and protests against capital punishment but that could hardly change the policy. But this time, there appears to be a scientific backing to the argument against lethal injections and maybe, just maybe, that could bring the advantage to those who want to put a firm full stop to execution by lethal injections.
Image Source: Lethal Injection Chamber
Source: The Telegraph, UK, USA Today
