[FADPUpdate] UM Lethal Injection Report

[melliott3 at aol.com]

Friends, 
 
Yesterday, the peer-reviewed  journal "PLoS Medicine", published an analysis by researchers at the University of Miami School of Medicine, "Lethal Injection for Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation?"  This report investigated the lethal injection process and found that the drug cocktail used in Florida and other states is unreliable and may render prisoners paralyzed, but not unconscious, unable to cry out as they experience excruciating pain and eventually suffocate.
 
The evidence that lethal injection is unconstitutional continues to grow.  Lawmakers and prison officials have attempted to assure both the public and themselves that lethal injection is a humane procedure.  In reality, lethal injection, like the Death Penalty system it serves, is fundamentally-flawed, unacceptably risky and inherently inhumane.  
 
There is no humane way to commit an inhumane deed…no right way to do the wrong thing.  It continues to become evident that the Death Penalty is nothing more than institutionalized sadism.
 
More articles on the U of Miami report can be found at http://www.fadp.org/news/newsindex.html
 
The full report can be found at the following link:
 
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0040156
 
 
Coming soon - Innocence Update.
 
---Mark
 
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DOUBTS DEEPEN ON DEATH ROW COCKTAIL

Jane Sutton 
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Some prisoners executed by lethal injection in the United States may be conscious and in pain before they die of suffocation, University of Miami researchers say in a study that concludes drugs do not work as intended.
 
The study in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, raises new questions about whether the lethal cocktail violates a US constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
 
Lethal injection is the primary method of execution for 37 US states and the federal government, though more than a dozen states have halted or suspended the procedure because of legal or ethical questions.
 
The drugs used are the anesthetic thiopental, pancuronium bromide to paralyze the muscles and lungs, and electrolyte potassium chloride to stop the heart. First adopted by Oklahoma lawmakers seeking a "humane alternative" to the electric chair, the combination is supposed to produce unconsciousness and then death due to respiratory and cardiac arrest.
 
The researchers studied drug dosages and time elapsed until death in 42 lethal injections in North Carolina and eight in California.
 
They concluded the thiopental might have been insufficient to keep the prisoners unconscious in some cases, based on concentrations in their blood after death.
 
They said the potassium chloride injection, which causes an intense burning sensation, did not reliably hasten death as prisoners given it died no faster than those who got only the other two drugs.
 
They concluded that pancuronium was the only reliably fatal part of the cocktail, so prisoners may have died of suffocation as it paralyzed their lungs.
 
In cases where the injection was botched and drugs were delivered into muscle or under the skin rather than into the veins, prisoners would be fully aware as the paralysis took hold and the potassium chloride was administered, said Teresa Zimmers, who led the study.
 
"It would sort of be the equivalent of slowly suffocating while being burned alive," Zimmers said.
 
That was likely the experience of Florida inmate Angel Diaz, who took 34 minutes to die in December after the needles were inserted improperly.
 
Since the US Supreme Court upheld the death penalty in 1976, the United States has executed 1,070 people, 901 of them by lethal injection.   REUTERS
 
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GRASSROOTS LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN GROWS
 
The ACLU of Florida has joined the growing chorus of voices calling on Gov. Charlie Crist not to sign any Death Warrants and continue the "Time Out" on executions.  The ACLU of Florida has issued a Legislative Action Alert asking members to contact Gov. Crist with their concerns.  
 
The U of Miami report underscores the need to publicly investigate important questions about Florida's Death Penalty system.  
 
Please continue to pass the word on this important grassroots initiative.  We now have an 
incredible opportunity to make a difference.  More info: http://www.fadp.org/ta-20070308.html.

---20 Florida prisoners are now eligible for Death Warrants and 7 more will be 
soon. 

CONTACT INFO FOR GOVERNOR CRIST:

ADDRESS: 
Gov. Charlie Crist
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL  32399

PHONE: 850-488-7146
FAX: 850-487-0801

EMAIL: Charlie.Crist at myflorida.com
 
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It's not about what they did, it's about what we do.
 
Shine the light,
 
---Mark
 
Mark Elliott
Director, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, FADP.org
2840 W. Bay Drive, #118
Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770 
(727) 215-9646
 mark at fadp.org
 
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
"The time is always right to do what is right."
Martin Luther King


 

 
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