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Death Penalty Details Withheld

As high court weighs lethal injection, actual methods are shrouded in secrecy

By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 7, 2008 8:56 AM CST
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(Newser) – With a landmark case coming before the Supreme Court today on lethal injection, the Los Angeles Times examines the unusual secrecy that shrouds the execution method. Defense lawyers who argue that it inflicts unnecessary pain are routinely blocked from information about executioners and the drugs injected. States say such information needs to be kept secret for the safety of prison personnel.

State officials claim that revealing details about lethal injections would enable anti-death-penalty "crazies" to hound those who administer the shots. Critics counter that untrained employees administer the drugs sloppily, not giving enough painkillers to prevent agonizing pain. Prominent Kentucky veterinarians say the state's drug cocktail does not even meet legal standards for putting down animals humanely.

The Texas death chamber is shown May 19, 2000, in Huntsville, Texas. Michael Rodriguez, one of the notorious Texas Seven, a group of inmates who escaped from state prison in 2000 and killed a police officer while on the lam, has dropped his appeals and wants to die. A federal...
The Texas death chamber is shown May 19, 2000, in Huntsville, Texas. Michael Rodriguez, one of the notorious Texas Seven, a group of inmates who escaped from state prison in 2000 and killed a police officer...   (Associated Press)
Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is pictured in this Oct. 7, 2002 file photo. Alabama has joined a growing list of Southern states facing court challenges to their method of capital punishment. Death-row inmates are asking the Supreme Court to order states to use...
Alabama's lethal injection chamber at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., is pictured in this Oct. 7, 2002 file photo. Alabama has joined a growing list of Southern states facing court challenges...   (Associated Press)
The death bed in the death chamber is separated by bars, foreground, from the witness viewing room at the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Huntsville, Texas, in this Jan. 25, 1995 file photo. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, file)
The "death bed" in the death chamber is separated by bars, foreground, from the witness viewing room at the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Huntsville, Texas, in this Jan. 25, 1995...   (Associated Press)
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Death Row inmates: lethal drug cocktail 'cruel and unusual'
BBC

China switches from firing squad to lethal injection for death penalty
Telegraph (UK)

 
death penalty • California • Texas • Kentucky • lethal injection • execution • Alabama • death row • cruel and unusual punishment • US Supreme Court

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