Thursday, April 17, 2008
U. S. Supreme Court Upholds Method Of Lethal Injection
By a vote of 7-2, the Supreme Court upheld the three-drug method most used by state and federal executioners in the United States, including Kentucky.
The three drugs are sodium thiopental, an anesthetic used to leave the person unconscious and unable to feel pain...pancuronium, a paralytic intended to prevent involuntary muscle movements...and, potassium chloride, used to stop the heart.
This follows nearly seven months without an execution in the nation. The method was challenged by Kentucky death row inmates Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling. They wanted the Court to order a switch to a single drug, a barbiturate that causes no pain. Kentucky has had only one execution by lethal injection.
The three drugs are sodium thiopental, an anesthetic used to leave the person unconscious and unable to feel pain...pancuronium, a paralytic intended to prevent involuntary muscle movements...and, potassium chloride, used to stop the heart.
This follows nearly seven months without an execution in the nation. The method was challenged by Kentucky death row inmates Ralph Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling. They wanted the Court to order a switch to a single drug, a barbiturate that causes no pain. Kentucky has had only one execution by lethal injection.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 4:23 AM 
