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Cruel and Usual?

By Steve Hall

That's the Scientific American's latest Ask the Expert topic. Larry Greenemeier's column is subtitled, "Is Capital Punishment by Lethal Injection Quick and Painless?" Lethal injection is used for capital punishment by the federal government and 36 States, at least 30 of which use the same combination of three drugs: sodium thiopental (a barbiturate to induce anesthesia), pancuronium bromide (a muscle relaxant that paralyzes all the muscles of the body) and potassium chloride (a salt that speeds the heart until it stops). This protocol was developed in 1977 for the state of Oklahoma by then?Chief Medical Examiner Jay Chapman, but it has never been codified or sanctioned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on October 28, 2010 (boomark / email).