While the death penalty has been the center of debate for politicians and lawmakers alike, a recent botched execution of an Ohio man has brought to the forefront of conversation the ethics of the unregulated compounds used in the injections. It has been questioned whether or not these compounds violate the 8th amendment’s ban of cruel and unusual punishment.
Advocates for and against the capitol punishment have long argued over the ethics surrounding the killing of criminals, fundamentally coming down to Hammurabi’s Code of equal retribution of action and the ideology that “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Recently, however, the conversation has shifted from the philosophy of the procedure to the practicalities involved.
Dennis McGuire, convicted of raping and murdering a woman who was seven months pregnant, was sentenced to death in 1994 by lethal injection. As he lay in his final moments, McGuire was unaware he would be the first, and possibly last, to experience a new two-drug injection that would cause him 10 agonizing minutes of pain and suffocation before he succumbed.
Prior to McGuire’s execution, Ohio relied on a one-drug injection until the manufacturer declared they did not want their product associated with the lethal injection process.
A two-drug injection, intended for use only in cases where a vein could not be found, now appeared to be the state’s only option. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, indicated this, citing the stockpile of onedrug injection that was expiring as a result of the manufacture’s disassociation.
Dr. Joel Zivot, assistant professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, disagrees with Dieter. He stated that the two drug injection that caused McGuire’s body to slowly shut down while he was apparently conscious was actually a combination of medications that were never intended for use in lethal injection.
He also pointed out that the compounds in the injection are in short supply, making questionable Dieter’s assertion that the two-drug was used out of necessity.
A lawsuit has been filed in federal court by McGuire’s two children, present at the execution, to outlaw the drug combination as a violation of the 8th amendment’s ban of cruel and unusual punishment.
32 states currently have the death penalty in their justice system, with all 32 including death by lethal injection, and McGuire’s suffering is not by any means an isolated incident.
An Oklahoma man executed earlier this month was quoted as saying, “My whole body is burning,” just moments before he succumbed.
The problem of sourcing ingredients for the lethal combinations has become a hot topic for lawmakers looking to regulate the compounds used. State departments often refuse to release information regarding the injections and aren’t required by law to standardize what is used, making many injections more like experiments than executions.
Should the McGuire case bring enough attention to the practice to ban lethal injection altogether, other forms of capitol punishment (as defined by the Death Penalty Information Center’s website), including death by firing squad, electric chair, hanging and gas chamber would have to be more heavily relied on.