"[T]here is significant uncertainty about whether the use of pentobarbital as a single-drug lethal injection for execution treats individuals humanely," Garland wrote.
Thank you for this post. I believe that trump is one of those people who enjoys knowing that he is inflicting pain and death on others from a distance with no risk to himself. He really got off on ordering the dropping of the Mother of all Bombs on the airport in Syria, however much he cried crocodile tears about saving the children. Likewise, shoot them in the legs and one night of carnage stand out but I am sure there are and will continue to be other sick comments.
Thankful to hear this. Stopping someone’s heart and sedating them are two completely separate things. Even your vet gives your pet propofol (a sedative) prior to administering the pentobarbital.
I dread to think of what Trump’s alternative will be because we all know there will be one. Given his false claims of a huge mandate I am thinking it will be as cruel as he can get away with…
Yes thank you. I’ve read he wants to bring back public executions and firing squads. I’m afraid PH will carry out orders for him if confirmed.. it’s looking like he will be.
As a lawyer and resident of a country which abolished the death penalty decades ago I cannot imagine what working within a criminal justice system where it still exists must be like. It takes very little experience of the law to appreciate how fallible are the people who work within it and the history of both our countries is littered with false convictions.
And with some it brings out the very worst in their characters. For me the lust for revenge is its very worst aspect.
In the US, everything we do within our criminal justice systems, takes revenge out, particularly with regard to, the death penalty.
No one connected to the murdered innocents, can be on the jury. Jury selection is, by far, the most detailed and thorough, within death penalty cases, as are pre trial hearings, the trial, appeals and executive branch consideration
Neither judge nor jury can have any connection to the crimes, the decision, as to possible sanctions, is left up to the legislative branch with approval of the executive and the judicial branches, which are out of the control of the trial judge and jury, the defendant is presumed innocent until a guilty verdict is found, with from 5-30 years of appeals, with the greatest of executive branch consideration of pardon, commutation or stays.
The vast majority of jurisdictions require a unanimous jury, to give a death sentence and there are 4 questions the jurors have to answer, all against the defendant/convicted party, in order to receive a death sentence, meaning 4 times 12, or a 48-0 vote, against the defendant/convicted party, to receive a death sentence.
It only takes 1 vote, for the defendant/convicted party, 1-47, to escape the death penalty, with that 2% overcoming the 98%, the most undemocratic vote in a constitutional republic.
We execute fewer that 0.2% of our murderers.
Revenge? Where? Your imagination.
Even those governments, most active against the death penalty, Western Europe, had majority populations, supporting the execution of Iraqi dictator, mass murderer Saddam Hussein.
Our civil court system allows revenge, in that we may seek equal compensation, with the harm, but also punitive judgements, which can be, hugely, greater.
Criminal cases, on the other hand, seek only justice, or just retribution, with the goal of sanctions not too lenient, nor too harsh, to the best of our abilities, given the law and all the facts of the case.
Thank you for all you do to protect and defend democracy, the rule of law and justice. AG Garland is on the right track removing present protocol because of uncertainty of proscribed Phenobarbital medication's, physiological pharmacokinetics. We are in this together. PS Peoples March 1/18/25 needs volunteer peace monitors.
The US Supreme Court has, long, approved of executions by pentobarbital. Here's why:
The symptoms with an intentional lethal dose of pentobarbital: unconsciousness, coma, death.
From Journal of Neurocritical Care, Jun 28, 2023
Currently, pentobarbital's use in suicide attempts is rare, although recent cases have shown an increase in the popularity of pentobarbital poisoning as a PEACEFUL suicide method.
Currently, pentobarbital is mainly used by veterinarians (anesthesia and euthanasia) or for end-of-life procedures (lethal injection in the United States . . .
Pentobarbital is a short-acting barbiturate currently utilized to initiate and maintain medically induced COMA.
Solutions often contain greater than 300 mg/mL sodium pentobarbital. Intravenous injection in humans and animals results in rapid coma, respiratory depression, hypotension, bradycardia, and hypothermia. These effects lead to PROMPT induction of asystole and DEATH.
It has been reported that oral doses of sodium pentobarbital as little as 100 mg can induce hypnosis in (human) adults, which substantially increases the lethality of unsecured concentrated veterinary formulations Cordell W. H., Curry S. C., Furbee R. B., Mitchell-Flynn D. L. Veterinary euthanasia drugs as suicide agents. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 1986;15(8):939–943. doi: 10.1016/s0196-0644(86)80681-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Ohio, with a Republican governor, has been in an indefinite moratorium for several years based on the inability to humanely execute people.
The report is limited but appreciated. I hope one of the Democratic senators puts Pam Bondi on the record on the matter. The report concludes the specific method used is inhumane while leaving it open -- if a careful process is used to determine the fact -- for the usage of another.
The trouble with the "panacea" nitrogen gas method leaves me not optimistic.
I will simply note that there were no "sixty years" etc. evidence of nitrogen gas executions. They just began. The evidence they are without problem is far from clear.
(2) Moving past the disputed "percentage" (including as spelled out in a recent book), Ohio had problems obtaining drugs for years. The legislature could have acted to speed things along but did not. Perhaps a recent report by the state attorney general of the problems with the death penalty influenced their speed or lack thereof.
Think. We have 60 years of detailed deaths by nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gas has the same effect, whether with suicides, commercial accidents or executions, as I detailed, for you, with all sources.
When you replace oxygen with nitrogen gas, you pass out and die, with no suffocation effect, as I detailed.
The, only and obvious differences are that executions are more controlled and that murderers will be holding their breath and struggling against their restraints, as long as they can and that guilty murderers, not innocents, will be killed.
As with the overwhelming percentage (99%) of executions being humanely carried out (1), Ohio has, always, had that ability. The governor is, simply, anti-death penalty, as some Republicans are and some Democrats are not.
There are 60 years of well documented, very peaceful deaths with nitrogen gas, as well as experiments, until unconsciousness - 16-20 seconds. (2)
None of the observations of various movements, after pentobarbital injection, required consciousness and included no observation of the murderers being conscious, at the time of those movements.
Thank you for this post. I believe that trump is one of those people who enjoys knowing that he is inflicting pain and death on others from a distance with no risk to himself. He really got off on ordering the dropping of the Mother of all Bombs on the airport in Syria, however much he cried crocodile tears about saving the children. Likewise, shoot them in the legs and one night of carnage stand out but I am sure there are and will continue to be other sick comments.
Thank you. Good to hear details of the final actions of the administration.
Thankful to hear this. Stopping someone’s heart and sedating them are two completely separate things. Even your vet gives your pet propofol (a sedative) prior to administering the pentobarbital.
I dread to think of what Trump’s alternative will be because we all know there will be one. Given his false claims of a huge mandate I am thinking it will be as cruel as he can get away with…
Yes thank you. I’ve read he wants to bring back public executions and firing squads. I’m afraid PH will carry out orders for him if confirmed.. it’s looking like he will be.
He will bring back drawing and quartering. Or burning at the stake.
As a lawyer and resident of a country which abolished the death penalty decades ago I cannot imagine what working within a criminal justice system where it still exists must be like. It takes very little experience of the law to appreciate how fallible are the people who work within it and the history of both our countries is littered with false convictions.
And with some it brings out the very worst in their characters. For me the lust for revenge is its very worst aspect.
Ann:
In the US, everything we do within our criminal justice systems, takes revenge out, particularly with regard to, the death penalty.
No one connected to the murdered innocents, can be on the jury. Jury selection is, by far, the most detailed and thorough, within death penalty cases, as are pre trial hearings, the trial, appeals and executive branch consideration
Neither judge nor jury can have any connection to the crimes, the decision, as to possible sanctions, is left up to the legislative branch with approval of the executive and the judicial branches, which are out of the control of the trial judge and jury, the defendant is presumed innocent until a guilty verdict is found, with from 5-30 years of appeals, with the greatest of executive branch consideration of pardon, commutation or stays.
The vast majority of jurisdictions require a unanimous jury, to give a death sentence and there are 4 questions the jurors have to answer, all against the defendant/convicted party, in order to receive a death sentence, meaning 4 times 12, or a 48-0 vote, against the defendant/convicted party, to receive a death sentence.
It only takes 1 vote, for the defendant/convicted party, 1-47, to escape the death penalty, with that 2% overcoming the 98%, the most undemocratic vote in a constitutional republic.
We execute fewer that 0.2% of our murderers.
Revenge? Where? Your imagination.
Even those governments, most active against the death penalty, Western Europe, had majority populations, supporting the execution of Iraqi dictator, mass murderer Saddam Hussein.
Why? Justice. They had no revenge motive.
Our civil court system allows revenge, in that we may seek equal compensation, with the harm, but also punitive judgements, which can be, hugely, greater.
Criminal cases, on the other hand, seek only justice, or just retribution, with the goal of sanctions not too lenient, nor too harsh, to the best of our abilities, given the law and all the facts of the case.
Chris,
Thank you for all you do to protect and defend democracy, the rule of law and justice. AG Garland is on the right track removing present protocol because of uncertainty of proscribed Phenobarbital medication's, physiological pharmacokinetics. We are in this together. PS Peoples March 1/18/25 needs volunteer peace monitors.
If Garland doesn't plan to destroy existing stocks of pentobarbital this is hardly even a speed bump.
Correct. It's nothing more than dishonesty.
Absurd of Garland. No surprise.
The US Supreme Court has, long, approved of executions by pentobarbital. Here's why:
The symptoms with an intentional lethal dose of pentobarbital: unconsciousness, coma, death.
From Journal of Neurocritical Care, Jun 28, 2023
Currently, pentobarbital's use in suicide attempts is rare, although recent cases have shown an increase in the popularity of pentobarbital poisoning as a PEACEFUL suicide method.
Currently, pentobarbital is mainly used by veterinarians (anesthesia and euthanasia) or for end-of-life procedures (lethal injection in the United States . . .
or ASSISTED SUICIDE in Belgium and Switzerland
======
From National Library of Medicine
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4735920/#B10
3. Discussion
Pentobarbital is a short-acting barbiturate currently utilized to initiate and maintain medically induced COMA.
Solutions often contain greater than 300 mg/mL sodium pentobarbital. Intravenous injection in humans and animals results in rapid coma, respiratory depression, hypotension, bradycardia, and hypothermia. These effects lead to PROMPT induction of asystole and DEATH.
contd
also see
It has been reported that oral doses of sodium pentobarbital as little as 100 mg can induce hypnosis in (human) adults, which substantially increases the lethality of unsecured concentrated veterinary formulations Cordell W. H., Curry S. C., Furbee R. B., Mitchell-Flynn D. L. Veterinary euthanasia drugs as suicide agents. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 1986;15(8):939–943. doi: 10.1016/s0196-0644(86)80681-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Thanks Chris.
About effing time
Ohio, with a Republican governor, has been in an indefinite moratorium for several years based on the inability to humanely execute people.
The report is limited but appreciated. I hope one of the Democratic senators puts Pam Bondi on the record on the matter. The report concludes the specific method used is inhumane while leaving it open -- if a careful process is used to determine the fact -- for the usage of another.
The trouble with the "panacea" nitrogen gas method leaves me not optimistic.
I see I am another target of a familiar face:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-145320158
I'm not going to try to out-link people here.
I will simply note that there were no "sixty years" etc. evidence of nitrogen gas executions. They just began. The evidence they are without problem is far from clear.
(2) Moving past the disputed "percentage" (including as spelled out in a recent book), Ohio had problems obtaining drugs for years. The legislature could have acted to speed things along but did not. Perhaps a recent report by the state attorney general of the problems with the death penalty influenced their speed or lack thereof.
Joe:
Think. We have 60 years of detailed deaths by nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gas has the same effect, whether with suicides, commercial accidents or executions, as I detailed, for you, with all sources.
When you replace oxygen with nitrogen gas, you pass out and die, with no suffocation effect, as I detailed.
The, only and obvious differences are that executions are more controlled and that murderers will be holding their breath and struggling against their restraints, as long as they can and that guilty murderers, not innocents, will be killed.
Joe:
As with the overwhelming percentage (99%) of executions being humanely carried out (1), Ohio has, always, had that ability. The governor is, simply, anti-death penalty, as some Republicans are and some Democrats are not.
There are 60 years of well documented, very peaceful deaths with nitrogen gas, as well as experiments, until unconsciousness - 16-20 seconds. (2)
All sources provided
1) Rebuttal: Botched Executions
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2017/01/rebuttal-botched-executions.html
2) Nitrogen Gas; Flawless, proven, peaceful, unrestricted method of execution
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2014/09/nitrogen-gas-flawless-peaceful.html
Good!
None of the observations of various movements, after pentobarbital injection, required consciousness and included no observation of the murderers being conscious, at the time of those movements.
As detailed, previously, both the US Supreme Court and the medical evidence disagree with Garland, as he well knows.