The Medical Technology of Execution: Lethal Injection

References

• Beichmann , A. 1963 . The first execution . Commentary , May : 410 – 419 . Report of the Commission to Investigate and Report the Most Humane and Practical Method of Carrying into Effect the Sentence of Death in Capital Cases, New York, 17 January 1888. Findings are cited in
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• Cited in Beichmann, ibid. In fact the execution was mishandled and a doctor is reported to have called out at one point after the first burst of electric current: 'Turn on the current instantly. This man is not dead.'
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• British Medical Association . 1992 . Medicine Betrayed: The Participation of Doctors in Human Rights Abuses , 112 London : Zed Books . Oklahoma Regulations, 12 April 1978, cited in: Legislation usually does not indicate in detail the procedures to be used in carrying out the lethal injection. In Idaho, for example, the legislation stated simply that 'the punishment of death must be inflicted by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death until the defendant is dead'. (Idaho Criminal Procedure 19-2716: Infliction of death penalty)
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• Denno , D . 1997 . Doing to death: are executions constitutional? . Iowa Law Review , 82 : 319 – 464 . Some states make different provision for execution according to when the prisoner was convicted and sentenced. Those convicted under the former statute may be sentenced to be executed by the method prevailing at that time or at least given the option of choosing between the former and the current method. In some jurisdictions, the choice of execution method is not made by the prisoner but by others (See
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• 1997 . Lexington Herald-Leader , 15 June This was not the only factor in choosing lethal injection as an execution method. The Kentucky Justice Minister, Dan Cherry, noted at the time of a discussion concerning the adoption by the state of lethal injection, that this execution method is easier to administer, is portable, and would allow the authorities to reduce potential unrest among inmates and trauma for the guards who get to know the condemned men held in the sole death row in the state. See
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