#Least painful way to die series#
Scientists have worked out what would happen to a human body when exposed to a series of grisly scenarios. This NASA astronaut believes aliens are real Goldman Sachs plans to make billions mining platinum in space Scientists create disturbing nutritional guide for cannibals The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on whether the pain associated with pulmonary edema violates the Eighth Amendment.Newly discovered Earth-sized planet could be teeming with life Mike DeWine has put executions on hold due to concerns about pulmonary edema and a drug shortage. Last year, a federal court in Ohio ruled that this evidence met the Supreme Court’s standard for cruel and unusual punishment because it “certainly or very likely causes severe pain and needless suffering.” That decision was overturned on appeal, but Ohio Gov. In 2014, Joseph Wood gasped and snorted for nearly two hours before he died that same year, in Oklahoma, Clayton Lockett writhed on the execution table for 33 minutes before he died of a heart attack.Įvidence of pulmonary edema has been presented to federal courts in a number of states, including Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Ohio. Multiple people executed in recent years using midazolam have shown signs of pain-gasping, heaving against restraints, choking, and coughing. As one of its inventors testified, midazolam induces drowsiness or sleep but it doesn’t stop a patient from feeling pain.
Midazolam is especially problematic because it’s not an anesthetic. Eighteen states use a paralytic as the second step in their lethal injection protocol. And in many cases, it’s impossible to tell that they’re experiencing severe pain because they’re paralyzed. NPR also reports that doctors have raised serious concerns that many people are not being properly anesthetized-which means they’re feeling the pain and suffocation caused by pulmonary edema as well as the tortuous burning of potassium chloride, the third drug in most lethal injection protocols. That’s because pulmonary edema develops during lethal injection as a result of quickly pushing extremely high doses of intravenous drugs, which directly damages the lungs, doctors told NPR. Investigators have found high rates of pulmonary edema in people executed with midazolam, pentobarbital, and sodium thiopental. NPR’s findings of pulmonary edema were similar not only across the states but also across different drug protocols. In some cases, they also found froth and foam in the airways, which indicates that the person was still alive and trying to breathe as their lungs filled with fluid.įroth and foam also showed that the first drug given during a lethal injection was causing the pulmonary edema, because the second drug in most protocols is a paralytic that stops the person’s breathing. Joel Zivet and anatomical pathologist Mark Edgar found pulmonary edema in about three-quarters of more than three dozen autopsy reports they reviewed.
The NPR study expands on evidence first uncovered in 2016, when Emory University Hospital anesthesiologist Dr. The evidence explains why multiple men have gasped for air after their executions began, NPR reports. All medical witnesses to describe pulmonary edema agreed it was painful, both physically and emotionally, inducing a sense of drowning and the attendant panic and terror, much as would occur with the torture tactic known as waterboarding.