Withdrawal of federal execution drug protocol

A recent article has reported that a review was conducted on the federal government’s current execution drug protocol which concluded that there remains significant uncertainty about whether the use of pentobarbital as a single-drug lethal injection for execution treats individuals humanely and fairly.

The report addressed areas of concern which included the possibility of extreme pain caused from the high amounts of pentobarbital in a single- drug execution protocol upon the initial injection. Further to this, the report highlighted that it is possible that the drug leaves a person in a state in which they may or may not be physically responsive to pain of pulmonary oedema but are experiencing that pain.

This seemed to coincide with eyewitness accounts for how prisoners reacted to the drug. For example, during the execution of Alfred Bourgeois in 2020, witnesses reported that he “began to exhale rhythmically, and his stomach started to quiver uncontrollably.”

The drug protocol has subsequently been withdrawn, leaving the federal government with no drug protocol to carry out executions. Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered that the protocol be rescinded and not reinstated unless “that uncertainty is resolved.”

You can read the article here.