Post by pumpkinpie on Apr 7, 2008 8:40:53 GMT -5
Ohio's Lethal Injection Rules Questioned
Apr 7 06:51 AM US/Eastern
ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) - Ohio requires its executions to be carried out "in a professional, humane, sensitive and dignified manner." But two men facing murder charges say the state's lethal injection procedure doesn't give the quick and painless deaths required by state law.
Two anesthesiologists who disagree over whether the drugs could cause excruciating pain were scheduled to testify Monday at a hearing on the constitutionality of Ohio's execution method.
Lethal injections are on hold nationally while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge in a case from Kentucky, which is among the roughly three dozen states that administer three drugs in succession to sedate, paralyze and kill prisoners.
The major criticism of the three-drug execution procedure is that if the executioner administers too little anesthetic or makes mistakes in injecting it, the inmate could suffer excruciating pain from the other two drugs.
Difficulties with two executions in recent years, in which the execution team struggled to find suitable veins in inmates' arms, brought complaints that the method is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual. Ohio officials stand by the procedure.
Mark Heath, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University, was expected to testify Monday on behalf of defendants Ronald McCloud and Ruben Rivera. They are accused of separate murders and could recieve death sentences if convicted.
Jeffrey Gamso, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents McCloud and Rivera, said Heath would argue that the state's method "builds in an enormously and unnecessarily high likelihood of torturing people to death."
The state was expected to counter with expert witness Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist from Massachusetts, who will testify via video conference Tuesday.
Ohio has executed 26 inmates since it resumed putting prisoners to death in 1999.
www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VSVQK80&show_article=1
Apr 7 06:51 AM US/Eastern
ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) - Ohio requires its executions to be carried out "in a professional, humane, sensitive and dignified manner." But two men facing murder charges say the state's lethal injection procedure doesn't give the quick and painless deaths required by state law.
Two anesthesiologists who disagree over whether the drugs could cause excruciating pain were scheduled to testify Monday at a hearing on the constitutionality of Ohio's execution method.
Lethal injections are on hold nationally while the U.S. Supreme Court considers a challenge in a case from Kentucky, which is among the roughly three dozen states that administer three drugs in succession to sedate, paralyze and kill prisoners.
The major criticism of the three-drug execution procedure is that if the executioner administers too little anesthetic or makes mistakes in injecting it, the inmate could suffer excruciating pain from the other two drugs.
Difficulties with two executions in recent years, in which the execution team struggled to find suitable veins in inmates' arms, brought complaints that the method is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual. Ohio officials stand by the procedure.
Mark Heath, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Columbia University, was expected to testify Monday on behalf of defendants Ronald McCloud and Ruben Rivera. They are accused of separate murders and could recieve death sentences if convicted.
Jeffrey Gamso, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents McCloud and Rivera, said Heath would argue that the state's method "builds in an enormously and unnecessarily high likelihood of torturing people to death."
The state was expected to counter with expert witness Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist from Massachusetts, who will testify via video conference Tuesday.
Ohio has executed 26 inmates since it resumed putting prisoners to death in 1999.
www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VSVQK80&show_article=1