US: Legal challenges to lethal injection as “cruel and unusual”

Recent court cases challenging lethal injection, as well as a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), have added to growing evidence and awareness that this procedure—touted by death penalty advocates as “humane”—is nothing of the sort. It is a technique that epitomizes all that is inherently barbaric and uncivilized about capital punishment. In fact, the method used to kill hundreds of death row inmates is banned in 30 states for animal euthanasia because of its cruelty.

Claims that the injection of a toxic mix of chemicals into the veins of a condemned prisoner results in a “relatively” painless and peaceful death are dispelled by witness accounts and prison records that show the practice has inflicted both mental and physical anguish on numerous individuals.

Just last Tuesday, May 2, Joseph Clark was executed at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville. Clark, 57, was convicted of two murders during an eight-day killing spree in 1984 and was the 21st person to be put to death since the state resumed executions in 1999.

According to a prison spokeswoman, Clark’s execution was delayed about 90 minutes because technicians had trouble finding a vein to administer the chemicals. Just as the poisons were supposed to then begin pumping into his body, he sat up saying, “It’s not working. It’s not working.” Officials determined that a vein had collapsed and the curtains were drawn to block witnesses’ view until a vein could be found in his other arm. The curtains were then reopened for witnesses to view him dying, and he was pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/leth-m08.shtml