midazolam

14 Stories

They Were Put to Death. There Was Something Off With Their Lungs

NPR looked at 216 death-row inmate autopsies

(Newser) - It's impossible to ask a death row inmate whether they're suffering as they are being put to death by lethal injection. The typical three-drug cocktail first anesthetizes them (rendering them unconscious) and then paralyzes them before stopping their heart. But it turns out their bodies can tell us....

Turn Over Execution Drugs for COVID-19 Fight, Experts Plead

Some of the same medicines are used when putting a patient on a ventilator

(Newser) - States that impose capital punishment by lethal injection have something needed to fight COVID-19. Some of the same pain relievers, sedatives, and paralytics administered in executions are used in hospitals to calm patients when putting them on a ventilator, Newsweek reports. In an open letter, medical professionals are asking state...

Before His Execution: 'I'm Really Sorry. That's It'

Billy Ray Irick first person executed in Tennessee since 2009

(Newser) - Billy Ray Irick was executed with a lethal injection Thursday night, some 33 years after he raped and murdered Paula Dyer, a 7-year-old girl he was supposed to be babysitting. The 59-year-old was the first person executed in Tennessee since 2009 and the seventh since 1961, the Tennessean reports. "...

Critics Blast Nevada's Plan to Execute Inmate With Fentanyl

It's a US first

(Newser) - Critics are warning about the "very real risk of a botched execution" in what is to be the first US case of capital punishment using fentanyl. With manufacturers unwilling to sell any drugs to be used in executions, Nevada's Department of Corrections quietly purchased small doses of fentanyl...

Man to Be Executed in a Way Unlike Any Other US Inmate

Etomidate has never been used before in a lethal injection here

(Newser) - Florida hasn't put anyone to death since January 2016. That's slated to change Thursday, along with one other thing: the drug cocktail used to do so. Mark James Asay, 53, is scheduled to die by lethal injection, with the increasingly difficult to obtain anesthetic midazolam being replaced by...

Arkansas Plans Execution With New Drug Supply

Latest batch expires in Jan. 2019

(Newser) - Arkansas has a new supply of a controversial lethal injection drug months after the state put four men to death over an eight-day period, officials said Thursday, as the state prepared to set an execution date for an inmate. Gov. Asa Hutchinson's office said he planned to schedule an...

Lawyers: 2 Arkansas Inmates Too Unhealthy for Execution

Federal judges deny effort to halt double execution

(Newser) - Two Arkansas inmates scheduled to be put to death Monday in what could be the nation's first double execution in more than 16 years asked an appeals court on Sunday to halt their lethal injections because of poor health that could cause complications. Lawyers for Jack Jones and Marcel...

'Chaotic' Day Ends With SCOTUS Sparing Ark. Inmate

Don Davis' death warrant has now expired

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court spared the life of an Arkansas inmate minutes before his death warrant was set to expire Monday, scuttling the state's efforts to carry out four double executions before its supply of a lethal injection drug expires. The court's decision to maintain the Arkansas Supreme...

With Arkansas Executions Set to Begin, a New Foe Steps Up

Drugmakers say they don't want their drugs used in capital punishment

(Newser) - Two pharmaceutical companies asked a federal judge Thursday to prevent Arkansas from using their drugs to execute seven inmates by the end of the month, saying they object to their products being used for capital punishment, reports the AP . Fresenius Kabi USA and West-Ward Pharmaceuticals Corp. were granted permission to...

8 Men Are Set to Die in Arkansas. Here's Why That's 'Unprecedented'

8 are set to take place over 10 days

(Newser) - Arkansas hasn't executed anyone in 11 years—but between April 17 and April 27, eight men will be put to death, an "unprecedented" move in the US, according to a group that monitors executions in the country. Nine inmates had asked the US Supreme Court to review the...

SCOTUS: Lethal Injection Drug Not Cruel, Unusual

Use of midazolam doesn't violate the Eighth Amendment

(Newser) - When the Supreme Court justices in April debated the constitutionality of lethal-injection drug midazolam, Elena Kagan likened the execution protocol to being burned alive. She joined three dissenters in today's 5-4 ruling that the first drug in a three-drug combination used last year in executions in Arizona, Ohio, and...

Oklahoma Debates Death by Nitrogen for Inmates

Rep. Mike Christian: executions with nitrogen gas deplete oxygen, are painless

(Newser) - Tennessee has brought back the electric chair ; Utah's considering reviving the firing squad . Now Oklahoma Republicans are making a push to build a $300,000 gas chamber in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, using nitrogen gas as a backup plan to lethal injection in executions, the AP reports....

3 Executions on Hold Until Supreme Court Hears Case

Unless Oklahoma comes up with an alternative to controversial drug

(Newser) - Three death-row inmates in Oklahoma now have a much better chance of living long enough to see whether their court challenge to lethal injection is successful. The Supreme Court today ordered Oklahoma to put the executions on hold until the court hears their case in late April, reports NBC News...

Supreme Court Will Review Lethal Injection

Justices to hear appeal from death-row inmates in Oklahoma

(Newser) - Gay marriage won't be the only high-profile issue on the Supreme Court's docket: The justices today said they would take up the issue of lethal injection, reports SCOTUSblog . Death-row inmates in Oklahoma say the state's three-drug protocol amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, as evidenced by...

14 Stories