US executes inmate with single drug

[philw]

http://www.news.com.au/world/us-executes-inmate-with-single-drug/story-e6frfkyi-1225808500116

Kenneth Biros executed in the US
First inmate to die by 'one drug' injection
Executed for killing 22-year-old girl
OHIO has put to death a convicted murderer with just one drug in a new procedure that has opened up a host of legal and ethical questions over lethal injection and capital punishment.

Critics held that Kenneth Biros, sentenced to death for killing and dismembering a 22-year-old woman in 1991, was a human guinea pig being subjected to an untested procedure.

Those in favour said the new method will be more humane and efficient than the three-drug cocktail used in 34 of the 35 other states where capital punishment is still practised in the US.

"It is a unique execution protocol in the country," said Julie Walburn, the state prisons spokeswoman for Ohio, which switched to the new method in November after a disastrous attempt to execute another inmate, Romell Broom.

Executioners spent two hours in September searching for a vein to inject Broom - convicted of the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl - failing 18 times to insert a needle before giving up.

All executions in the state were put on hold while Ohio searched for an alternative to the old method, which uses one drug to anesthetise, another to paralyse and a third to stop the heart.

The state's new plans are to use just the anesthetic drug - thiopental sodium - but in a dose two-and-a-half times greater than the amount usually administered.

The new protocol also includes a back-up option that means executioners can deliver an intramuscular injection containing massive doses of two chemicals, a sedative and a painkiller, if they cannot find a vein.

The process can be repeated three times until the prisoner is dead.

Opponents of the three-drug method say it is cruel because the inmate can suffer extreme pain if the first drug fails to work properly.

A lawyer for 51-year-old Biros - executed at the so-called "death house" prison in Lucasville, Ohio, where those awaiting execution spend their last hours - has described the new method as nothing less than "human experimentation".

"The newest protocol calls for the use of drugs and methods that have never been used in an execution in the history of the United States or any other civilised country," he said.

The unsuccessful court filing for a stay of execution argued that the unknown consequences of the new method made the protocol a violation of the constitutional prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishment."

Defence lawyer Timothy Young said he had concerns about the new protocol, in particular over when to begin using the two-drug intramuscular injection.

"Who is going to make the decision to switch? After how long?" he said

Terry Collins, head of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, who has presided over 31 of 32 executions in the state since 1999, dismissed lawyers' doubts as a "smoke screen" aimed at trying to "cloud the issue."

"It's not an experiment drug, it's used in existing protocol and it's used in hospitals all across this nation and in the world" to anesthetise people before surgery, he said.

Biros was originally to be executed in March 2007, but the US Supreme Court put his execution on hold at the 11th-hour because of a federal suit challenging lethal injection procedures.

The US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection in a landmark 2008 ruling.

[PegLeg45]

Just hit 'em with a massive morphine dosage and say "Good night, Irene".

A bullet to the brain would serve just as well.

And, then there's rope.



Rant time:

Those "it's not supposed to hurt them" bleeding heart folks kill me.

The scum didn't worry about what the victims felt.

Tie 'em behind a horse and drag 'em to death........how 'bout that.

 

Back to calm time.....

[bulldog75]

You are too kind.

For those bleeding heart liberals.

When these scum rape and murder your mother, wife, daughter, grandmother, or family member then you should feel sorry for them not me.

Second of all the bleeding heart liberals will murder a innocent baby and say that its just a fetus but they don't have the stomach to get rid of a peice of crap. These are the same turds that want to say if you have a dose of cold medicine (some put your BAC at .02) and are hit by a girl going to the abortion clinic to have a abortion and the fetus dies and not the girl they want to convict you of murder. Kind of a double standard.

[bulldog75]

A rope is reusable but to quick for them.

[TAB]

When done correctly, hanging is almost instant death. 

There are many methods that would be extremly fast and  have very limited pain.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

 I give you cruel and unusual punishment. Lock deathrow inmates in with all these dumb ass liberals, Tell them it's for life and they will kill THEMSELVES.

[PegLeg45]

I give you cruel and unusual punishment. Lock deathrow inmates in with all these dumb ass liberals, Tell them it's for life and they will kill THEMSELVES.

Just put 'em in a room with all four walls covered with blown up photos of Pelosi on them.

[warhawke]

Just put 'em in a room with all four walls covered with blown up photos of Pelosi on them.

Cruel and unusual indeed!

I think we need the old French Tickler instead

[fightingquaker13]

What gets me is the "searching two hours for a vein and giving up" part. You knew where his head was, right? I am pretty much neutral on the issue of the death penalty, I don't really care if its that or life without parole as long as the guy is gone for good. But if we are going to do it, the Chinese bullet in the back of the head method sure seems to make  the most sense.
FQ13

[shooter32]

Bring back ol SPARKY, public display of hangings or a good old bullet to the head.


This POS and ALL others like him need to be put to death asp.