Associated Press reports that the director of Missouri's Corrections Department was not informed when a doctor changed the dosage of lethal injection chemicals in several executions in that state. The report says that the prison system will clarify the procedures.
The story appears in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other Missouri papers. LINK
Larry Crawford, the state's Corrections Department director, said this week he should have been notified when a physician who assists in state executions prepared a lower-than-expected dose of anesthesia for the last several inmates who were put to death.
The smaller amount also was prepared for convicted murderer Michael Taylor, whose scheduled execution in February was halted in an 11th-hour court delay.
Crawford made the announcement while testifying this week in a hearing to decide whether Missouri's method of execution is cruel and unusual.
A surgeon who assists in Missouri executions testified in a deposition that he prepared 2.5 grams of thiopental, an anesthesia, instead of 5 grams because he believed it was enough, and packaging made the larger amount unwieldy.
And:
... Tom Goldstein, an expert in lethal injection litigation who recently argued the exact same issue before the U.S. Supreme Court for a Tennessee inmate, said it "shocks the conscience that Missouri has allowed executions which so clearly risk unnecessary pain and suffering."
Thomas Henthorn, a Colorado anesthesiologist, testified for Taylor that Missouri's practice of rapidly injecting each chemical one after the other doesn't leave enough time for the anesthesia to take effect, creating a "substantial risk of inflicting excruciating pain."
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