That's the title of an AP report, here.
The anonymous team set to conduct Kentucky's first execution in eight years practices every month in a never-used chamber, doing everything from strapping someone to the table to pushing the lethal three-drug cocktail through IVs dripping into a pitcher.
What the monthly practices don't include, however, is a protocol for what to do if something goes awry, according to interviews and court documents.
State officials say the process includes necessary safeguards, but death-penalty opponents say the potential exists for a long, excruciating execution. They cite examples in other states, such as Ohio, where it took more than an hour to put IV lines in an inmate, and Florida, where an inmate took more than 30 minutes to die. They note that in Kentucky's last execution, in 1999, the execution team needed two tries to find a vein in Eddie Lee Harper's arms.
The state's next execution is set for Sept. 25, when Ralph Baze is to die for the 1992 slayings of Powell County Sheriff Steve Bennett and Deputy Arthur Briscoe. The lawmen were serving warrants on Baze when he ambushed them.
Baze is involved in state and federal lawsuits challenging Kentucky's method of execution.
Kentucky's execution protocol is kept secret by the Department of Corrections, which cited security concerns in denying open-records requests from The Associated Press. Some death-penalty states, including Tennessee, Florida and California, make their protocols public, including details about what and how much of each chemical is given.
Some details of Kentucky's protocol were revealed in interviews and court records in a case challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection.
Former Warden Glen Haeberlin said in a 2004 deposition that the prison attorney would call the Kentucky attorney general's office if a suitable vein couldn't be found or if something went wrong, but that he was unsure what would happen next.
"That's a good question, I, I, I, don't know the answer to that," Haeberlin said. "I mean, at that point in time it would be, uh, a decision that would be made by an entity above me."
Haeberlin's comments are a startling admission, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor who has studied executions and execution procedures.
"It's a troubling answer, but it's the most honest," Denno said.
And:
A phlebotomist and an emergency medical technician are part of the execution team, according to depositions, but American Medical Association guidelines bar doctors from taking part.
The lethal injection index is here.
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