Sherry Chandler

The Horrors of Lethal Injection

Here is part of a poem, “This Is Not About Politics,” that I wrote in 2001 after listening to an NPR report about lethal injection in Texas. The report dealt with the effects of execution on prison personnel. At that time, Texas was doing hundreds of executions, and prison guards who participated were having pretty severe psychological side effects. The poem was fraught but sincere. It was never published though it was read at a Moby Dick symposium at Hofstra University. Don’t ask how Moby Dick comes into it. “Teddy Bear” is the nickname of a prison guard:

Teddy Bear and his team take thirty seconds
to snug the straps. The tech prays for an easy vein.
The warden lifts his glasses. The executioner,
across the one-way mirror, injects pentothol,
pancuronium bromide, potassium chloride, one,
two, three. The chaplain keeps eye contact.
The wails of the dead man’s mother pierce
the walls, the barred glass, the warden’s ears.

I have always thought lethal injection a nightmare just because it is so cold and clinical. Think about being strapped to a gurney, having an IV needle inserted, and then knowing that this lethal cocktail will soon be travelling your veins. It’s enough to give you nightmares the next time you have some minor surgery. I think I might rather be hanged or beheaded or put before a firing squad.

And I understand that these prisoners may not be worthy of sympathy, but their inhumanity should not be an excuse for mine.

Anyway, now it turns out that lethal injection may well be a worse nightmare than I had thought. From today’s New York Times:

The three chemicals used in lethal injections in about 35 states have long attracted attention for what critics say is their needless and dangerous complexity.

The first chemical in the series is sodium thiopental [note: also called sodium pentothol], a short-acting barbiturate. Properly administered, all sides agree, it is sufficient to render an inmate unconscious for many hours, if not to kill him. The second chemical is pancuronium bromide, a relative of curare. If administered by itself, it paralyzes the body but leaves the subject conscious, suffocating but unable to cry out. The third, potassium chloride, stops the heart and causes excruciating pain as it travels through the veins.

Problems arise, lawyers and experts for the inmates say, when poorly trained personnel make mistakes in preparing the chemicals, inserting the catheters and injecting the chemicals into intravenous lines. If the first chemical is ineffective, the other two are torturous.

Lethal injections are being put on hold now because judges are ruling that doctors must supervise, and it isn’t always easy to find doctors willing to participate in an execution. For one thing, such participation violates the AMA code of ethics.

Once upon a time many years ago a friend of mine who is a physician said that he was opposed to lethal injection because it would make executions appear to be humane. Whatever you may think of capital punishment — I am strongly against it — I don’t see much way you can call it humane. It looks to me like law as revenge.

Possibly related posts:

Cruel and Unusual

Debs at Moundsville

Who are the barbarians?

First do no harm (to those who can pay the bills)

62

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.