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July 9, 2008 11:06:07 AM CDT

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Report Details Botched US Executions

Posted Oct 4, 07 12:50 PM CDT in Science & Health,  Arts & Living,  US    Editor's Choice

(Newser) – Despite advocates' claims, lethal injection isn’t humane or painless, and it should be stopped in the US, Amnesty International asserts in a new report. Since the practice was instituted in 37 states in 2000, at least nine lethal injections have been bungled, including one in which the condemned took 69 minutes to die, the Guardian reports.

In another scenario, a prisoner told workers "It don't work" after 22 minutes of effort didn't yield a usable vein. Thirty more minutes of looking followed, and an autopsy uncovered 19 puncture wounds. The scathing Amnesty paper revealed that a drug used in Texas executions has been banned in animal euthanasia because it masks pain too ineffectively.

Sources Guardian (UK), Amnesty International

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FILE ** 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...   (Associated Press)
Florida's lethal injection gurney is shown in an undated handout photo taken in the redesigned death chamber which will accommodate either the electric chair or the gurney at Florida State Prison. Lethal...   (Associated Press)
The Amnesty International report contains a catalog of botched executions dating from 2000, when lethal injection was adopted by 37 of the 38 US states with the death penalty.   (Shutterstock.com)
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Death by Lethal Injection Gone Wrong   (ScottGrewe (YouTube))

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