Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Lethal Injection & Nitrogen Hypoxia: Controversies Resolved

Originally published May, 2005, updated through 2009, then 1/30/24

Lethal Injection & Nitrogen HypoxiaControversies Resolved    

From:  Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom    

NOTE: On 1/30/2024, I inserted 7 articles and some wording to update more medical/academic/journalism ethical and factual lapses in reporting, on the death penalty and execution methodology, all of which are intentional, unless you believe that the lack of fact checking and vetting can be accidental, for 20 years.

Do you? If yes, this may change your mind, showing how blatant and common anti-death penalty frauds and "errors" are, in those three fields.

Several issues are raised with regard to lethal injection, other execution methods and the death penalty, itself (see, at bottom, " Additional research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of everyone".)

Preface:

Too often, one can find ethical lapses by journalists, academics and those in the medical profession, who find that anti-death penalty activism is more important than the ethical codes within their profession. This is no longer in question, as it has been witnessed for, at least, one hundred years, as I have documented, at bottom.

Generally, the lethal injection issues are:
1) The murderer experiencing pain during execution;
2) The ethics of medical professionals participating in executions; and
3) Proper training of execution personnel.

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Media Disaster: Nitrogen Hypoxia & Scientific American
ProDPinNC: Media Disaster: Nitrogen Hypoxia & Scientific American
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1) PAIN AND LETHAL INJECTION

The evidence, including the immediate autopsy of executed serial murderer/rapist Michael Ross, supports that there is no pain within the lethal injection process.

There is a concern that some inmates may be conscious, but paralyzed, during execution, because one of the three drugs used may have worn off, prior to death.

First, there is rare evidence this may have occurred. There is a lot of speculation.

Secondly, if properly administered, it cannot occur with the properties and amounts of the chemicals used and within the time frame of an execution.

Thirdly, no one has explained how the first drug could have worn off, within the time frame of execution or, how is it that the first drug was, somehow, improperly administered, but the second and third were not, when using the same lines and procedures?

An Associated Press reporter correctly stated that “there is little to support those claims except a few anecdotes of inmates gasping and convulsing and an article in the British medical journal Lancet.” (AP, “Death penalty foes attack lethal-injection drug”, 7/5/05)

and
Rebuttal: Dr. Joel Zivot & Lethal Injection
ProDPinNC: Rebuttal: Dr. Joel Zivot & Lethal Injection
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The British Medical Journal, The Lancet, published an article critical of lethal injection (Volume 365, 4/16/05). A follow up article, by essential the same group of researchers, published a similar report in PLoS Medicine on 4/24/07.

The articles did not/could not identify one case where evidence existed than an inmate was conscious during execution.

The Lancet article identified 21 cases of execution where the level of “post mortem” (after death) sodium thiopental was below that used in surgery and, therefore, may suggest consciousness was possible.

A more accurate description would be all but impossible.

A “long after execution” post mortem measurement of sodium thiopental is very different from a moment of death measurement.

Dr. Lydia Conlay, chair of the department of anesthesiology, Baylor College of Medicine (Texas Medical Center, Houston) said the extrapolation of postmortem sodium thiopental levels in the blood to those at the time of execution is by no means a proven method. “I just don’t think we can draw any conclusions from (the Lancet study) , one way or the other.”

Actually, we can. The science is well known. 

Sodium thiopental is absorbed rapidly into the body. Long after execution blood testing of those levels means absolutely nothing with regard to the levels at the time of execution. Nothing.

The Lancet article did not dispute the obvious — for executions, the sodium thiopental is administered in dosages roughly 10-20 times the amount necessary for sedation unconsciousness during surgical procedures.

Unconsciousness occurs within the first 30 seconds of the injection/execution process. The injection of the three drugs takes from 4-5 minutes. Death usually occurs within 6-7 minutes and is pronounced within 8-10 minutes.

The researchers also failed to note the much lower probability (impossibility?) that the murderer could be conscious, while all three drugs are coursing through the veins, concurrently.

Despite the Lancet article’s presumptions and omissions, there is no scientific evidence that consciousness with pain has occurred with the amounts and methods of injecting those three chemicals within the execution - period.

The AP article also stated that “They (death penalty opponents) also attack lethal injection by saying that the steps to complete it haven’t been reviewed by medical professionals.”

That is both deceptive and irrelevant.

The unchallenged reality is that medical professionals have both reviewed and implemented injection procedures for decades. The same procedures are used in executions. Criminal justice and/or medical professionals have been trained in this application.

Does anyone not know this?

The chemicals used in lethal injection, as well as their individual and collective results, at the dosages used, are also well known by medical and pharmacology professionals. And this?

Dr. A. Jay Chapman, the former Oklahoma Medical Examiner, who created the protocol, consulted a toxicologist and two anesthesiologists. He states the obvious ” ‘ . . .it didn’t actually require much research because the three chemicals – a painkiller, a muscle-paralyzing agent and a heart-stopper – are well-known to physicians.’ ‘It is anesthetizing someone for a surgical procedure, but simply carried to an extreme.’ ‘If it is competently administered, there will be no question about this business of pain and suffering.’ “(“Lethal Injection Father Defends Creation”, Paul Ellias, Associated Press, 5/10/07)

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American Nurses' Assoc.: Dead Wrong on Death Penalty
ProDPinNC: American Nurses' Assoc.: Dead Wrong on Death Penalty
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Further, lethal injection is not a medical procedure, but the culmination of a judicial sentence carried out by criminal justice professionals, the result of which is intended as death, the outcome of all but a very few cases.

The follow up research/article is “Lethal Injection for Execution: Chemical Asphyxiation?” (Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine, 4/24/07). Dr. Koniaris was an author in both this and the Lancet article.

The question mark from the title says it all.

From the Conclusion:

” . . . our findings suggest that current lethal injection protocols “MAY” not reliably effect death through the mechanisms intended, indicating a failure of design and implementation. “IF” thiopental and potassium chloride fail to cause anesthesia and cardiac arrest, potentially aware inmates “COULD” die through pancuronium-induced asphyxiation.” (Underline, quote, caps and color change are mine, for emphasis)

In other words, the authors tell us they cannot prove this has ever happened. They are speculating MAY IF COULD.

Skip the speculation: Some Reality

From Hartford Courant, “Ross Autopsy Stirs Execution Debate—-Results Cited To Counter Talk Of Pre-Death Pain”, August 11, 2005

The below is a paraphrase of parts of that article, including some exact quotes.

Results of the autopsy done on serial killer Michael Ross are being cited by several prominent doctors to refute a highly publicized article that appeared in The Lancet, the British medical journal, in April, 2005.

Critics of the Lancet article say it does not account for postmortem redistribution of the anesthetic – thiopental. The redistribution, the critics say, accounts for the lower levels of thiopental on which Dr. Koniaris based his Lancet article conclusions that the levels of anesthetic were inadequate. The Ross autopsy results document this redistribution, bolstering the critics’ assertions.

Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, was aware of the controversial Lancet article before performing the Ross autopsy. As a result, he took the additional step of drawing a sample of Ross’s blood 20 minutes after he was pronounced dead at 2:25 a.m. May 13. Carver took a subsequent sample during the autopsy, which began about 7 hours later, at 9:40 a.m.

The 1st sample showed a concentration of 29.6 milligrams per liter of thiopental; the second sample showed a concentration of 9.4 milligrams per liter. The 1st sample was drawn from Ross’ right femoral artery, and the second from his heart, which can account for some of the discrepancy. But Dr. Mark Heath, a New York anesthesiologist and one of the numerous doctors who have signed letters to The Lancet challenging the Koniaris article, said it clearly substantiates the postmortem redistribution of the thiopental.

Dr. Jonathan Groner, a pediatric surgeon from Ohio said he interviewed a number of forensic toxicologists before adopting the view that thiopental in a corpse leaves the blood and is absorbed by the fat, causing blood samples taken hours after death to be an unreliable marker of the levels of thiopental in the body at the time of death.

Groner described the Ross autopsy results as “a powerful refutation” of the Lancet-Koniaris study.

Dr. Ashraf Mozayani, a forensic toxicologist with the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office in Texas, said the level of thiopental “drops quite a bit” after death. Even in the living, Mozayani said, thiopental levels decline rapidly after administration of the drug. She cited one study in which a patient was administered 400 milligrams of thiopental intravenously. After two minutes the concentration in the blood was measured at 28 milligrams, but dropped to 3 milligrams concentration 19 minutes after the anesthetic was injected.

Mozayani said the declining concentration of thiopental cited in the Ross autopsy report “make sense.”

On The Lancet article, she said, “I don’t think they have the whole story – the postmortem redistribution and all the other things they have to consider for postmortem testing.”

NOTE: I think they had and knew the whole story. How could they not?  Ethics?

The Veterinary sidetrack

Opponents of the death penalty, as well as other uninformed or deceptive sources, have been stating that even vets do not use the paralytic agent in the euthanasia of animals. This is a perversion of the veterinary position, which actually provides support, however unintended, for the human execution process.
Some fact checking is in order — www.avma.org/issues/animal_welfare/euthanasia.pdf

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Veterinary Claims a Distortion of Reality: Human Lethal InjectionProDPinNC: Veterinary Claims a Distortion of Reality: Human Lethal Injection
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NOTE: That said, it would be much easier to have only a one drug – anesthesia – execution and I am not sure why it isn’t being done, with the possible exceptions that I have read that may result in 1) much longer execution time; 2) a deep coma, not death, but without the obvious follow up that more anesthesia could be administered to induce death and 3) much more movement, twitching and jerking, by the inmate.

Somebody followed my suggestion.

NOTE: In an attempt to stop challenges based upon the unfounded pain allegations, Ohio has selected a new protocol, whereby “executioners would use a single large dose of thiopental sodium.” (1), thus avoiding the paralytic drug which, death penalty opponents say, without evidence, masks the suffering of inmates, allegedly caused by the third drug.

2. THE MEDICAL/ETHICAL DILEMMA

Medical groups cite that there is an ethical conflict for participation in the lethal injection process, because medical professionals have a requirement to “do no harm”.

Those ethical codes pertain to the medical profession, only, and to patients, only. Judicial execution is not part of the medical profession and death row inmates are not patients. 

Too obvious?

Doctors and nurses can be police and soldiers and can kill, when deemed appropriate, within those lines of duty and without violating the ethical codes of their medical profession. Similarly, medical professionals do not violate their codes of ethics, when acting as technical experts, for executions, in a criminal justice procedure.

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Dr. J Zivot: More Medical Anti-Death Penalty Idiocy

Physicians are often part of double or triple blind studies where there is hope that the tested drugs may, someday, prove beneficial. The physicians and other researchers know that many patients, taking placebos or less effective drugs, will suffer more additional harm or death because they are not taking the subject drug or that the subject drug will actually harm or kill more patients than the placebo of other drugs used in the study.

Physicians knowingly harm individual patients, in direct contradiction to their “do no harm” oath.

For the greater good, those physicians sacrifice innocent, willing and brave patients. Of course, there have been medical experiments without consent and, even, today, they continue (“Critical Care Without Consent”, Washington Post, May 27, 2007; Page A01).

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Nitrogen Induced Hypoxia as a Form of Capital Punishment, Michael P. Copeland, J.D. Thorn Parr, M.S. Christine Papas, J.D., Ph.D. East Central University , 6/08/2018,  
Nitrogen Hypoxia as Capital Punishment - East Central University Draft Report - DocumentCloud
or
https://dpic-cdn.org/production/legacy/Copeland%20Report_Nitrogen-Hypoxia.pdf 
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The greater good is irrelevant, from an ethical standpoint, if “Do no harm” means “do no harm”. Physicians knowingly make exceptions to their “do no harm” requirement, every day, within their profession, where that code actually does apply. And, they should. There are obvious moral and ethical nuances and we should consider and pay attention to them, as is done within the medical profession.

The “do no harm” has no ethical effect in a non medical context, because this ethical requirement is for medical treatments, only, and for patients, only.

For those who distort the Hippocratic oath, I would suggest they read the original, classic versions, which only prohibits abortion and euthanasia, two practices commonly accepted by many physicians.

The acknowledged anti-death penalty editors of The Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine agree. They write:

“Execution by lethal injection, even if it uses tools of intensive care such as intravenous tubing and beeping heart monitors, has the same relationship to medicine that an executioner’s axe has to surgery.” (“Lethal Injection Is Not Humane”, PLoS, 4/24/07)

The PLoS Medicine editors have made the same point many of us have been making – similar acts and similar equipment do not establish any equivalence or connection.

There is no ethical connection between medicine and lethal injection. Therefore, there is no ethical prohibition for medical professionals to participate in executions.

To put it clearly: The execution of death row inmates is not equivalent or connected to the treatment of patients.

Is this a mystery?

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The Death Penalty & Medical Ethics Revisited
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Obviously, execution is not a medical treatment, but a criminal justice sanction. The basis for medical treatment is to improve the plight of the patient, for which the medical profession provides obvious and daily exceptions. The basis for execution is to carry out a criminal justice sentence where death is the sanction.

Justice, deterrence, retribution, just punishments, upholding the social contract, saving innocent life, etc., are all recognized as aspects of the death penalty, all dealing with the greater good.

Are murderers on death row willing participants? Of course. They willingly committed the crime and, therefore, willingly exposed themselves to the social contract of that jurisdiction.

Lethal injection is not a medical procedure. It is a criminal justice sanction authorized by law. Therefore, there is no ethical conflict with medical codes of conduct and medical personal participating in executions.

Any participation in executions by medical professionals should be a matter for their own personal conscience. In fact, 20-40% of doctors surveyed would participate in the execution process.

A side note:

40,000 to 100,000 innocents die, every year, in the US because of medical misadventure or improper medical treatment. (2)

Do no harm? The doctor doth protest too much, methinks.

There is no proof of an innocent executed in the US since 1915 (3).

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Media Disaster: Journalism's Death: The Death Penalty & the Media
ProDPinNC: Media Disaster: Journalism's Death: The Death Penalty & the Media
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3. PROPER TRAINING

In every state, there are hundreds or thousands of people trained for IV application of drugs or the taking of blood. Even many hard core drug addicts are proficient in IV application.

There are very few errors in lethal injections which can be attributed to personnel error (See Rebuttal: Botched Executions). The simple fact is that, if necessary, non medical personnel can be properly trained to mix and administer the chemicals used in lethal injection. But, it isn’t necessary.

It appears that some 500-1000 innocent patients die, every year, in the US, due to some type of medical misadventure, with anesthesia. (2)

We execute, on average, 30 guilty murderers per year.

I am unaware of evidence that shows criminal justice professionals are more likely to commit critical errors in the lethal injection process than are medical professionals in IV application.

Furthermore, even with the proven errors by lethal injection personnel, those are under 1% of all cases (See Rebuttal: Botched Executions).

In the errors of medical professionals, we are speaking of a large number of deaths and injuries to innocent patients – the opposite of the intended outcome.

1) “Lethal Injection Creator Fine With 1 Drug in Ohio”, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, New York Times, November 22, 2009 Filed at 4:25 p.m. ET

2) see “Deaths from Medical Misadventure” at
www.wrongdiagnosis.com/m/medical_misadventure/deaths.htm
and
“Health Grades Quality Study: Patient Safety in American Hospitals, July 2004”
www.healthgrades.com/media/english/pdf/HG_Patient_Safety_Study_Final.pdf

3) The Death Row "Exonerated"/"Innocent" Frauds 
 71-83% Error Rate in Death Row "Innocent" Claims, 
Well Known Since 1998
https://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-exoneratedinnocent-frauds.html 

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600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victims' families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
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Research, with sources, fact checking, vetting & critical thinking, as required of anyone within a public policy debate and which rebut all anti-death penalty claims.
 
Most will realize that the media has been using only anti-death penalty claims and , then, failed to fact check, vet, not use critical thinking, with that research, while avoiding all pro-death penalty research and experts, for decades. How do I know most will realize this? Because they wouldn't have seen any of this, prior:
 
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
and
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
(7 pro-death penalty experts listed)

Media Disaster: Journalism's Death: The Death Penalty & the Media

Media Disaster:
Journalism's Death: The Death Penalty & the Media

To: Journalism Organizations and Schools, Media and Governments, throughout the world
 
From:  Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom   
 
Preface
 
For about 25 years, many, if not most, of media has gone all out anti-death penalty, with 1-4 of these four characteristics:
 
1) Presenting anti-death penalty claims, but refusing to fact check and vet them (1);
2) Refusing to research and present pro-death penalty claims (1);
3) Lying to the public regarding 1 & 2, above (1); and/or
4) A combination of all three.

NOTE: Can journalists not fact check, not vet and not use critical thinking, accidently? Of course not. It has to be intentional, which I define as a lie to the public and a betrayal of journalism.
 
As detailed:
 
1)  The Death Penalty: A Repudiation of Journalism, by Journalists?
The Society of Professional Journalists & The Sigma Delta Chi Award:
together with
Media Disaster - Rebuttal: Trial By Fire: Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
Cameron Todd Willingham: Media Colludes w/ the Anti-death Penalty Movement
 
Summary: How is it that David Grann won two of the highest awards for excellence in journalism, the Polk & Sigma Delta Chi Awards?
 
No more are there any absolute standards in journalism - no need to research, fact check nor vet. How and why? 

My conclusion is that the "How?" is on purpose, as it has to be, with the "Why?" being that anti-death penalty promotion is more important than journalism, as fully proven, herein. Are there other reasons?
 
2) USA Today: Another Major Media Anti-Death Penalty Manifesto
HOW MEDIA MURDERS THE TRUTH
 
Summary: After months of research, by three investigative journalist and editors, this disaster was presented, representing those four characteristics, to perfection, meaning horrendous.
 
3)  Pulitzer Prize Winner Refuses to Fact Check, Vet and/or Lies: Which is it?
 
Summary: These are a series of replies to Pulitzer Prize winner, Jeff Gerritt, representing the four characteristics:
 
Media Disaster: Death Penalty & Journalists Murdering Journalism
 
To: Journalists and Journalism Schools, worldwide, and countless others
Subject: Why Fact Checking & Vetting Matter: A Cautionary Tale for Journalists
RE: “Ohio should kill capital punishment,”, Jeff Gerritt, Deputy Editor Toledo Blade, November 17, 2013
 
Media Disaster: The Death Penalty: How Bad Can The Media Be?
 
Media Disaster: Editor Jeff Gerritt Continues His Run of No Fact Checking

 
4)  Journalism? Ethics? Media Disaster: WFIU/NPR's 
"The Rush to Kill" Episode 4 of 9: Poison
 
Summary: Is this the personification of intentional no fact checking, no vetting, no critical thinking and/or lying to your audience? Are there other choices?
 
There were up to 20 contributors and researchers from both WFIU and NPR, with regard to this 9 episode program, which took up to two years to put together.
 
In closing
 
Please see many additional Media Disaster articles, here (2), each one representing 1-4 of those characteristics.
 
The major journalism and citizen questions is, how many other topics are handled in a similar fashion?
 
FN
 
1)  Research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of anyone within a public policy debate and which rebut all anti-death penalty claims.
 
Most will realize that the media has been using only anti-death penalty claims and , then, failed to fact check, vet, not use critical thinking, with that research, while avoiding all pro-death penalty research and experts. How do I know most will realize this? Because they wouldn't have seen any of this, prior:
 
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
and
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
(7 pro-death penalty experts listed)
 
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600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
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