That's the title of a report issued by the ACLU and Northwestern University's Center for International Human Rights. It's subtitled, Texas Law Protect Lizards from Needless Suffering, But Not Human Beings. It's available in Adobe .pdf format.
Here's the introduction:
As Texas prepares to execute Cleve Foster on April 5, 2011, disturbing new facts have emerged in relation to Texas’ lethal injection protocol. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has recently announced its intention to begin using a new drug in the lethal injection process, without allowing for any expert analysis or public scrutiny of the suitability of the new drug—pentobarbital. In fact, there is no evidence that Texas has ever engaged in a meaningful assessment of whether the drug can or should be used in combination with the other two drugs administered in lethal injections, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. This lack of assessment and transparency is even more troubling given the concerns of prominent anesthesiologists about the efficacy of pentobarbital in the execution of human beings and the risk that the three drugs used in combination could lead to an excruciatingly painful death.
Texas’ lax attitude regarding the taking of human life contrasts sharply with its enactment of detailed regulations to ensure that animals suffer no pain when they are euthanized. Animal euthanasia laws provide strict certification requirements for euthanasia technicians and regulate acceptable methods of intravenous euthanasia down to the correct dosage per kilogram of an animal’s body weight. By contrast, the Texas legislature has failed to enact any legislation to ensure that the individuals responsible for extinguishing human life are properly trained and qualified, and that the drugs they administer are both effective and humane. Instead, the legislature has left the lethal injection protocol to the discretion of the director of the Correctional Institutions Division of the TDCJ – a prison official with no medical training. In Texas, men and women are put to death not under the supervision of doctors and anesthesiologists—or even licensed veterinarians—but at the hands of a prison lethal injection team whose medical training is limited. It is no exaggeration to say that Texas regulates the euthanasia of reptiles more strictly than the execution of human beings.
"Animal euthanasia more regulated than human execution, ACLU of Texas says," is the Dallas Morning News report by Diane Jennings.
A report released Sunday by the ACLU of Texas says procedures for euthanizing animals in the state are more regulated than the protocol for executing inmates on death row.
Regulating Death in the Lone Star State: Texas Law Protects Lizards From Needless Suffering, but not Human Beings says the state has a “lax attitude regarding the taking of human life,” compared to detailed regulations that govern euthanizing animals.
The report comes about two weeks after Texas prison officials announced a switch to a new drug, pentobarbital, in the mixture used for lethal injection. Last week, two inmates filed a lawsuit claiming the new procedure is invalid because the change was made without public input. One of the inmates, Cleve Foster of Tarrant County, is scheduled to die Tuesday.
“We’re just calling for the same kind of transparency and expert advice that’s used in a different context, the context of euthanizing animals,” said Lisa Graybill, legal director of the ACLU. The ACLU calls in the report for more public scrutiny of how the state manages executions.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice declined to comment. But a department handbook sets specific standards for training and rules for carrying out executions.
And:
According to the ACLU report, when an animal is euthanized, several Texas laws regulate “everything from the lighting in the room to the dosage of the drugs.” In addition, animal euthanasia drugs are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which specifies the formula to be used and the amount, according to body weight.
But the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, the state law governing most justice procedures in Texas, simply states that executions shall be carried out “by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death.”
The decision to switch to pentobarbital was a policy decision made by the director of the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, who has no medical training.
When pentobarbital is used to euthanize animals, it is used by itself, not in combination with other drugs, such as those used in Texas executions. The Texas lethal injection mixture includes two other drugs: pancuronium bromide to paralyze the muscles and potassium chloride to stop breathing.
The report cites a 2005 study published in a British medical publication makes the claim that 43 percent of those executed “showed signs of awareness at the time of death,” which is “particularly troubling” because the pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride may cause pain if administered improperly.
“The death penalty itself is the punishment,” Graybill said. “That’s our criminal justice mandate, and our sort of societal interest isn’t in torturing the person.”
Texas News Service reports, "Condemned Man: Execution Illegal." It's written by Peter Malof.
A condemned man is still fighting his execution scheduled for tomorrow in Huntsville, after a district judge ruled that new procedures do not violate state law. Lawyers for Cleve Foster are appealing that decision today, insisting that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) ignored the need for a public review process before replacing a no-longer available execution drug.
Co-counsel Maurie Levin says she has genuine concerns about unknowns surrounding pentobarbitol, which is just starting to be used in U.S. executions instead of sodium thiopental. But, she adds, the main demand of her client's lawsuit is government transparency.
"It's about holding state officials who work for us accountable. Those principles of open government are essential to democracy. We can't apply them selectively."
The state argues procedural laws do not apply to certain inmate matters. Levin disagrees, saying the TDCJ unnecessarily withheld its plans for the new drug from death-row inmates for months.
Earlier Texas lethal injection news coverage begins at the link.
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