American Way of Life

Sodium thiopental to cause unconsciousness. Pancuronium bromide to paralyze muscles, including those necessary to breathe. Potassium chloride to end all heart function. In ten minutes, the amount of time to walk across American University’s campus, a former coworker, neighbor, friend, spouse, is dead by lethal injection.

Except, when the concoction doesn’t work as planned. When used together, sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride are known as the three-drug cocktail, used to end the lives of inmates in the majority of death penalty cases in the United States. But with anti-death penalty watchdogs, Supreme Court plaintiffs and even the creator of the current legal injection system raising questions about the trio’s effectiveness, the humane facade of the needle falls away.

During an execution, the first injection of sodium thiopental works to render inmates unconscious and theoretically numb to the lethal effects of Drugs Two and Three. Yet in some documented cases, the chemical has failed to anesthetize prisoners. As the second drug is administered, the conscious but paralyzed inmate suffocates, unable to voice pain.

Aside from chemical malfunctions, the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington non-profit, maintains a list of botched executions. There are countless examples of lethal injections where the inmates were repeatedly poked and prodded because executioners were unable to find suitable veins to use. As a result, the ten-minute process is far more drawn out and painful than any human being should have to experience.

This past December, Governor Corzine of New Jersey recently passed a law ending capital punishment because he is strongly against “state-endorsed killing.” If other states were willing to follow Governor Corzine’s model, the 3,350 inmates trapped on death row documented by the Criminal Justice Project could be given a new lease on life.

Supporters of the death penalty claim it is a permanent solution that makes the world a safer place. In an opinion piece for USA Today, former New York Gov. George Pataki defended his decision to make the death penalty legal because it “put [fear] back where it belongs - in the hearts of criminals.” Pataki also cited that violent crime and murders dropped significantly in the two years since the establishment of the death penalty. To further emphasize his point, he brought up New York serial killer Arthur Shawcross who killed eleven people after he was released from prison for raping and murdering two children. Unfortunately, said Pataki, Shawcross predated the instatement of the death penalty, or eleven lives could have been saved.

While supporters of the death penalty argue that death is the securest method to deal with serious criminals, anti-death penalty activists push for reform of the judicial system so sentences are fair and the accused are fairly represented in court. Along with many other anti-death penalty organizations, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty proposes life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty. Likewise, While Governor Corzine is firmly against the death penalty, he is a strong advocate of life without parole, which is the punishment for New Jersey’s former death row inmates.

In early January, the Supreme Court heard a case on the constitutionality of the lethal injection procedure. As a result of the two death row inmates’ lawsuit, many states have placed a moratorium on lethal injections. The plaintiffs argued that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment based on autopsy records of a 1999 Kentucky execution where the inmate was “awake but unable to cry out” because the anesthesia failed to work properly. In the Kentucky case, as well as in other accounts of mishandled executions, it is clear lethal injection is a fate unfit for any human. To support such punishment would only further encourage a vindictive and biased system when valuable time and resources could be spent in effective reform programs for inmates and restitution programs for victims’ families.