Florida is to execute man using untried lethal injection drug

FlawedByDesign

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"TALLAHASSEE, Fla., — An execution scheduled in Florida on Tuesday will be the first using the drug midazolam hydrochloride despite concerns it might not work as promised and could inflict cruel and unusual punishment on a death row inmate.

Midazolam, typically used by doctors for sedation, will be the first of three drugs pumped into William Happ as part of a lethal injection cocktail designed to induce unconsciousness, paralysis and death by cardiac arrest"

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/florida-execute-man-using-untried-lethal-injection-drug-8C11390762

They don't seem to go into detail about the other 2 drugs they plan to use
 
Nah, the traditional cocktail is pentobarbitol, pancuronium bromide, and pottasium chloride. The first knocks em out, the second paralyses the lungs, the third stops the heart beating. Apparently, autopsies of a percentage of executed criminals revealed there wasn't enough pentobarbitol to induce true anaesthesia; it's quite likely they died agonising deaths.

If I was going to be executed, and had a choice of methods, I sure as hell wouldn't pick lethal injection; the procedure can take around 30 minutes I believe. I would choose firing squad, without a doubt. (Does Utah still use that method btw?)
 
Yeah, the guillotene sounds very fast by all accounts. 'Course, they stopped using all the really messy methods, as they didn't want too much blood on their hands; they found in lethal injection a way of killing people that looks so peaceful and benign, it could pass for a routine medical procedure. There's something about it that strikes me as very sinister however; nobody knows if these guys are feeling pain or not, and even if they were we'd have no way of knowing, as they're completely paralysed.
 
Nah, the traditional cocktail is pentobarbitol, pancuronium bromide, and pottasium chloride. The first knocks em out, the second paralyses the lungs, the third stops the heart beating. Apparently, autopsies of a percentage of executed criminals revealed there wasn't enough pentobarbitol to induce true anaesthesia; it's quite likely they died agonising deaths.

Terrible. You would think they would use something similar to the midazolam/fentanyl combo they use before surgery, with an increased amount of fentanyl. This would be a relatively painless death, much more humane.
 
^I figure the authorities would consider an out right opiate overdose to be too enjoyable for the prisoner. Knocking them out with versed and administering fentanyl until the respiratory depression becomes fatal seems much more simple/civil than paralyzing the lungs and inducing cardiac arrest.
 
Lol we can't exactly be giving our prisoners an enjoyable death now, can we- where would the justice be in that? If I had to go, I'd go out in style with a good old opiate overdose. Saying that, it would take a fair amount of drug to finish the job, considering my tolerance.

I have to say that without a shadow of a doubt, the most painless (and cheapest) method of execution being proposed, would have to be "lethal hypoxia"-the condemned is simply put into an atmospheric chamber, similar to a gas chamber, where the amount of oxygen is reduced to fatal levels. I saw this on the BBC documentary "The Science of Killing"; Michael Portillo actually undergoes the process, coming very close to dying in the pressure chamber. He said he had no idea how close he came to dying, and that lethal hypoxia is painless to the point of being euphoric ....
 
Nah, the traditional cocktail is pentobarbitol, pancuronium bromide, and pottasium chloride. The first knocks em out, the second paralyses the lungs, the third stops the heart beating. Apparently, autopsies of a percentage of executed criminals revealed there wasn't enough pentobarbitol to induce true anaesthesia; it's quite likely they died agonising deaths.

If I was going to be executed, and had a choice of methods, I sure as hell wouldn't pick lethal injection; the procedure can take around 30 minutes I believe. I would choose firing squad, without a doubt. (Does Utah still use that method btw?)
Yeah they are moving to a new drug combo because pentonarbitol has been pulled from the market by its manufacturer to prevent its use in human executions
 
i remember reading on here that in australia a bunch of elderly ppl got together and somehow managed to get a bunch of pentobarbitol so they could end their lives as they saw fit. id def go with the guilteine. or standing on a thermo-nuclear device as it detonates. my vapor would be vaporized lol

doesnt seem too bad, midazolam is used all the time to knocl ppl out for surg, i dont see how its going to change the fact they are intent on killing that person, and sadly cruel and inhumane kind of take a back seat.
 
And it would be the guillotine for me.

Heads can remain conscious for 15+ seconds post decapitation. You'll get instant death if you decapitate through the jaw severing the brainstem, but the lower you go the longer they last.

I think a benzo overdose will work fairly well. Although IMO inert gas asphyxia is the ideal execution method, I have no idea why no one uses it.
 
I think helium is actually quite popular among the people who want to commit suicide; I believe you can buy a kind of "suicide kit" (probably illegal now), which consists of a hood attached to a bottle of helium.

CrimsonJunk, it's quite interesting/macabre actually: basically no legitimate company was willing to sell a US state (Texas, I believe)? The drugs necessary for their lethal injection combo, and they were running very low on pentobarbital supplies, so they were desperately trying to score the stuff from any shady outfit who would sell them; Indian companies whose products quality was dubious, and some extremely dodgy British company called Dream Pharma (a real suspect, back ally outfit, out of business now). So, I think a lot of these lethal injection states are changing their drug protocols not out of humanitarian concern, but because no self-respecting company is willing to sell them drugs they know will be used to kill people; just think of the terrible PR backlash!

I believe some US states are changing to a single drug injection. I'm not sure what the drug is though; I believe it may simply be a massive overdose of a commonly used sedative ie one that's easy to source without raising eyebrows.
 
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So it took 14 minutes untill he was confirmed dead.

The execution began at 6.02pm at Florida State Prison in Starke. Happ's eyes opened and he blinked several times.
He closed them and opened them again two minutes later. He then yawned and his jaw dropped open.
At 6.08pm, the official overseeing the execution tugged at Happ's eyelids and grasped his shoulder to check for a response. There was none.
A minute later, Happ's head began moving back and forth and shortly thereafter his breathing stopped.
He was pronounced dead at 6.16pm.
 
A shot to the brain would've taken a fraction of a second. By a show of hands, how many of you would prefer to be maybe anesthetized and then paralyzed and then given a heart attack? Even if the shot to the brain hurts, you won't be able to really experience the pain because you won't be able to codify an experience.

Another thought I have each time somebody is executed: why not televise the execution? What's the point of the death penalty if future would-be criminals can't see it?
 
I would take a high caliber slug to the brain over lethal injection for sure. I think they should make the death penalty optional, life in prison with out the chance of parole or execution. I would most definitely choose the latter. I think being sentenced to a futureless life of incarceration seems much more cruel than a swift death
 
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I agree with both of you, .50 bmg to the base of the skull and youre dead before you hit the ground. Being jailed for the rest of your life in a supermax prison? Fuck that. Id rather be executed.
 
The death penalty is equal to government sanctioned MURDER!!!! Two wrongs do NOT make a right. For the most part only backwards barbaric countries still use the death penalty. I say we give them life WITHOUT parole .....let em rot away slowly over the decades.
 
after everything ive read about lethal injection, it sounds scary as hell. everyone has different tolerances and shit, i bet a good amount of people die a horrible, drawn out, agonized death. but you can never know until youre strapped down going through it.

seriously though, why not just a massive opiate OD? killing someone is not nearly as hard as they make it out to be. a massive opiate or benzo OD would be painless and a sure thing.

shoot em up with 200mg oxycodone, without a tolerance thats going to be fatal 100% of the time
 
Yea or have some gov chemists make some super potent fent analog and gas them. I forget the actual type of weaponized fent gas the russians have but it has already proved its effectiveness.
 
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