1.
It feels like lethal injections are in the news all the time, and it's not even about
who is getting executed or whether or not people should even be executed...it's all
about weird chemical cocktails and procedural minutia.
Why should you even care?
There is one simple reason.
All this lethal injection stuff is really about
2.
the 8th Amendment.
That's the one that stops the government from committing cruel and unusual punishment, including
torture.
I, for one, would care a lot if my tax dollars were going toward cruel and unusual person
torture.
Now some of you are thinking, but Trace we've done lethal injections in the past and they
weren't considered cruel or unusual, why should we care now?
3.
Thing is, back then, our normal or "usual" injection included three parts.
Sodium Thiopental, which would knock the prisoner out.
Another drug which would relax their muscles and stop their breathing.
And a third drug which would stop their heart all together.
Ultimately killing them.
Which is dark...
4.
But was the usual procedure.
Now, that first part Sodium Thiopental is no longer on the market.
So, states can't kill people using the "usual" method.
They have to get a replacement drug from largely unregulated "compound pharmacies".
These drugs are a new element in the lethal injection cocktail, which by nature makes
them unusual.
Plus, they are untested, so no one can say for sure that they don't inflict undue pain.
So they may be both cruel and unusual.
That is not good.
Adding to all of this, some states have secrecy laws in place so the public, and more shockingly,
5.
the inmates can't find out what exactly is in their lethal injection cocktail.
Again, a possible violation of the 8th amendment, as getting painfully killed by the government
via mystery liquids is probably one of the most extreme versions of "cruel", "unusual"
punishment.
So, until all these secrecy laws are worked out/ruled unconstitutional, and all of these
new drug cocktails are tested and found to be humane, you're going to keep hearing about
it.
And you should.
You may even want to talk about it yourself.
These are our
rights people.