Ulhas' day off, today?
--ravi
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/13/usdom14388.htm http://hrw.org/reports/2006/us0406/
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Lethal injections look peaceful and painless—which is why California and all but one of the other death penalty states adopted them to replace the more gruesome spectacles of execution by hanging, firing squad, lethal gas, or electrocution. The condemned prisoner is strapped to a gurney and injected with a massive dose of the anesthetic sodium pentothal, which should render him unconscious and stop his breathing. Next he is injected with pancuronium bromide, a drug that paralyzes voluntary muscles, including the lungs and diaphragm. Finally, he is injected with potassium chloride, which should bring swift cardiac arrest.
California copied this bizarre and dangerous drug protocol from the national leader in executions, Texas, which itself had simply taken the idea from an Oklahoma medical examiner with no pharmacology experience who concocted the protocol in 1977. When the Morales court earlier this year ordered California to review the protocol because of evidence that it may put prisoners at risk of unnecessary pain, California officials chose not to undertake a careful inquiry.
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