[Magdalen] Arkansas Catch-up.

[Jay Weigel]

*TMI Warning, don't read if easily grossed out.

The thing is, current drug "cocktails" are very inefficient and very slow
working. They work, basically, by depressing the respiratory drive in the
brain, which takes awhile. This is why you see reports of the person
Writing, "snoring", and making other noises during the process. It can take
as long as 20-30 minutes for death to occur. Whether or not the person
actually feels distress is open to debate (I tend to think they do, on some
level, even though they are unconscious), but it is most certainly
unpleasant for the observers.

Another problem has been venous access. Recently, many medical personnel
have been refusing to participate in executions on moral/religious grounds.
This leaves the prisons with the problem of nobody with the ability to
place the IV catheter correctly so the drugs can be administered. In one
execution a few years ago, it was discovered *after the fact* that the IV
catheter had been improperly placed and that the drugs, which included a
potassium compound, had gone into the surrounding tissue instead. Anyone
who's ever had an IV containing potassium knows how that stuff can burn,
especially if your IV infiltrates. Add to that the problem that many
inmates on death row may have a history of IV drug abuse, which will muck
up your veins pretty badly, often to the point where there's no way an IV
is going in there at all. I'v tried to start IVs on people whose veins have
been overused and abused, and there's no going there. No time, no way.

And of course, the reason Arkansas, like other states, is panicking about
the expiration date of one of the drugs is that most American drug
companies are refusing to supply drugs for executions. Period. The end.
Funny how they get all moral about that, but don't mind signing your death
warrant (or impoverishing your family) if you've got cancer and can't
afford your chemo drug. /s

Some state legislature (was it Mississippi?) just voted to re-establish the
firing squad for executions. I suppose if you just *have* to have
executions, a firing squad is much more efficient than the current drug
overdose. I can't say what it does to or for the executioners, but I don't
think it's any more cruel and unusual. Maybe less so, in the long run.

On Tue, Mar 21, 2017 at 2:51 PM, M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

> In April, Arkansas will conduct four double executions in the space of a
> ten-day period.
>
> I'm sorry, I said that wrong.
>
> In April, Arkansas will conduct four double state-sponsored murders in the
> space of a ten-day period.
>
> The reason for the haste, apparently, is the soon-upcoming expiration of
> one of the drugs in the three-drug cocktail.
>
> For the sake of those souls on the table, I pray that all three drugs work
> "properly", that staff knows what the hell they're doing (there hasn't been
> an execution in Arkansas since 2005), and that it all goes swiftly and
> without pain.
>
> What a country of moral degenerates America was, and in many states, still
> is.  Death, death, death.  More guns!  No socialized healthcare!  More
> executions!
>