HomeOPINIONThe Three-Drug Protocol: Arkansas Death Row Dilemma

The Three-Drug Protocol: Arkansas Death Row Dilemma

By TAYLOR FARNSWORTH
Staff Writer

The execution of eight men on death row, four black and four white males, in a little over a week seems unprecedented. The urgency for Arkansas death row inmates to be executed comes only after learning that one of the three drugs used in the state’s lethal injection protocol will be expiring at the end of April.

Obtaining execution drugs, as well as legal obstacles, have been an issue for the state for quite some time, according to Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson. As a result, an execution for someone on death row hasn’t taken place since 2005.

If all eight executions are to happen within the given timespan then Arkansas will be the first state to ever execute this many death row inmates since the United States reinstated the death penalty back in 1977.

Ledell Lee, one of the eight men on death row scheduled to be executed this month, was the first to be executed this past Thursday through Arkansas’s three-drug protocol.

The three-drug process begins with a sedative, Midazolam, the drug that will be expiring at the end of the month. Critics of the death penalty have voiced their concerns with this drug, claiming that it does not effectively make the inmates unconscious.

Rightfully so, given that many medical experts have said that the drug is a sedative medically used for anti-anxiety purposes as opposed to an anesthetic.

Instances of inmates waking up during the procedure have occurred in some of the six states that have used Midazolam in their own lethal injection protocols.

In fact, Florida used to use the drug as part of their protocol, but recently replaced it back in February with Etomidate, an anesthetic.

Anesthetics are used to prevent pain during surgeries, while a sedative merely lowers the patient’s functional activity, meaning that the patient could in fact still feel pain.

However, with a 500 mg dose listed in the Arkansas’s execution protocol, the state believes that inmates will indeed be unconscious during the procedure.

But the drug itself has proven to be ineffective at times, and has yet to be used by the state for this type of purpose until now. At a normal dosage the drug can slow or stop breathing, but the inmates’ legal teams are arguing that the use of this drug will cause a “cruel and unusual” death.

Opponents of the use of the drug believe that if the inmate being administered the drug is not unconscious, then he or she could feel as if they are suffocating once they are injected with the second drug, a paralytic, Vecuronium Bromide.

This drug is meant to be used as a muscle relaxant and is usually given to patients who are undergoing surgery so that they do not move during the procedure.

However, a doctor testified in the past saying that if Midazolam does not properly sedate the inmate, then the use of Vecuronium Bromide could cause the inmate to feel like they are drowning.

The last drug used in the process, Potassium Chloride, is meant to stop the inmate’s heart.

However, if inmates are still conscious when they are given this drug it will make them feel as if a hot needle is being pierced through their veins.

The State’s supply of Potassium Chloride expired back in January, and finding a new avenue for the drug was not easy according to Governor Hutchinson.

The supply of the drug was finally obtained back in the beginning of March allowing for the executions to take place.

The worry over the effectiveness of the first drug to sedate the inmates caused District Judge Kristine Baker to order a blanket injunction earlier this month essentially stopping all of the executions from taking place.

While the Arkansas Attorney General’s office almost appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, the Court decided to overturn the ruling on Monday.

More complications in regards to the executions continued to follow later that same week as a temporary restraining order for the usage of the second drug was issued on Wednesday by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Alice Gray.

Gray issued the restraining order after the manufacturer of the drug filed a complaint stating they were unaware Arkansas was using the drug as part of its lethal injection protocol.

The drug was barred for use in any form of execution by the Arkansas Circuit Court, but on Thursday the restraining order was overturned by the State Supreme Court.

The controversial argument seems no longer to be over whether or not the death penalty should be in place, but more so on the actual method of execution.

Attorneys for the inmates have asked that the Court rules the three-drug protocol unconstitutional due to its inability to effectively make the inmates unconscious.

The purpose of lethal injection as opposed to the electric chair, or being gunned down, was due to the belief that it would be a more humane way to kill someone on death row.

However, with the use of a medication that has been proven to be ineffective, the frustration with Arkansas decision to execute this many inmates through their three-drug protocol procedure is understood.

When it comes to the death penalty, it seems as if the goal is not trying to torture those being executed, but to give them the quickest and most painless death possible.

I can’t say I am an avid supporter of the death penalty, but I am understanding when it comes to the need to give victims closure.

But what makes us any better than those who committed these murders, rapes, etcetera if we are to execute them in such a way that only makes us appear to be just as inhumane as them?

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