Report Details Botched US Executions

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. (More death penalty stories.)