Reuters posts, "Florida to execute man using untried drug for lethal injection," by Bill Cotterell. It's via GlobalPost.
An execution scheduled in Florida on Tuesday will be the first using the drug midazolam hydrochloride despite concerns it might not work as promised and could inflict cruel and unusual punishment on a death row inmate.Midazolam, typically used by doctors for sedation, will be the first of three drugs pumped into William Happ as part of a lethal injection cocktail designed to induce unconsciousness, paralysis and death by cardiac arrest.
The first of the drugs administered as part of the lethal injection "protocol" in Florida has long been the barbiturate pentobarbital. But Florida, and other death penalty states that use a trio of drugs as part of their injection procedures, have been running out of pentobarbital since its manufacturer clamped a ban on its use in future executions.
The 51-year-old Happ, who has abandoned his appeals and said he is ready to die, was condemned for the 1986 abduction, rape and murder of Angie Crowley, whose body was found on a canal bank near Crystal River in central Florida.
"This is somewhat of an experiment on a living human being," Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said Monday.
"The three-drug process depends on the first drug rendering the inmate unconscious and, if he is only partially unconscious, the inmate could be experiencing extreme pain," he added. "Because the second drug paralyzes him, he would be unable to cry out or show that he's in pain."
Just last week, Missouri postponed an execution set for October 23 due to uncertainty about using a different drug, propofol, as a substitute for pentobarbital.
"Florida's use of new drug in execution spurs ethical concerns," is the Gainesville Sun report by Kristine Crane.
The Florida Department of Corrections is planning to use a lethal injection drug today that has never been used before in executions, raising ethical concerns by legal experts throughout the nation.
The drug, midazolam hydrochloride, which is commercially known as Versed, would be used for the first time in the scheduled execution of William Happ, 50, who has been on death row for 27 years for killing and raping 21-year-old Angie Crowley in Crystal River in 1986.
A spokeswoman from the Department of Corrections said it has limited supplies of the drug it had been using — pentobarbital sodium — so it switched to Versed.
The nation has seen a shortage of the drug since its maker, Danish company Lundbeck, stopped shipping the drug to prisons where executions take place.
And:
Deborah Denno, a law professor at Fordham University in New York who has studied lethal injection procedures in the U.S., said that the drug companies have more to gain than lose by discontinuing sales to prisons.
“These drugs are not money-makers for companies, so I think it’s not worth it to a manufacturer to get embroiled in a process that could have a negative impact on other drug sales,” Denno said.
She added that it’s possible — and there’s even been some indication — that the drugs could be acquired by prison hospitals for surgeries and then used for executions.
Some states, such as Texas, are getting pentobarbital from compounding pharmacies. But no states apart from Florida have switched to Versed, which is normally used as a sedative before surgery and has never been used in an execution.
“These drugs weren’t made to kill people … they were made with another purpose in mind. It’s unknown how they’re going to work,” Denno said.
"Execution with new drug set for Tuesday," by Bill Cotterell at the Florida Current.
His scheduled lethal injection marks Florida's 80th execution since capital punishment was resumed in 1977. It's the first, however, involving midazolam hydrochloride, an anesthetic that replaces pentobarbital as the first of three drugs administered in an execution.
Capital punishment opponents contend that the new drug might not completely knock out the condemned man, permitting him to suffer silently as the next two drugs -- the paralytic vecuronium bromide and heart-stopping potassium chloride -- are administered.
"This is somewhat of an experiment on a living human being," Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said Monday. "The three-drug process depends on the first drug rendering the inmate unconscious and, if he is only partially unconscious, the inmate could be experiencing extreme pain.
"But because the second drug paralyzes him, he would be unable to cry out or show that he's in pain."
Miami New Times posts, "Florida's New Execution Procedure Considered Too "Cruel" For Use on Animals," by Terrence McCoy.
William Happ, who's spent the last 27 years on death row for raping and killing a 21-year-old in 1986, will be the first person today to experience a new execution serum that, across the nation, only Florida has been willing to use.The drug, called midazolam hydrochloride, will be the first of a triumvirate of serums pumped into Happ, who has abandoned all of his appeals and said he's willing to die. The Florida Department of Corrections has changed serums in light of a nationwide shortage of the traditional pentobarbital sodium. Its manufacturer, a Danish company called Lundbeck, has stopped sending the drug to prisons where executions occur.
No one's quite sure if the new drug, which should put Happ under, will work as promised. And therein lies the rub, because if the drug doesn't work, the second serum dumped into him -- to induce paralysis -- will make it impossible for him to express discomfort or pain.
But Florida Department of Corrections Spokeswoman Misty Cash expressed little concern. "We believe this protocol is the most humane and dignified way of carrying out the rule of the state," she told Riptide. "We only have a limited supplies of the old drug and they'll expire in November, so we had to come up with a new protocol."
She declined to elaborate on how that decision was made. "We're not going to get into a discussion of how or why it was chosen," Cash said.
Earlier coverage from Florida begins at the link. Related posts are in the international and lethal injection indexes.
To date there have been 30 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,350 post-Furman executions since 1977. An inmate who waives his or her appeals in referred to as a volunteer.
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