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Sodium thiopental, also known as Sodium Pentothal, thiopental, thiopentone, or Trapanal, or Fatal-Plus in veterinary euthanasia contexts, is a rapid-onset short-acting barbiturate general anesthetic. It is the thiobarbiturate analog of pentobarbital, and an analog of thiobarbital. Sodium thiopental was a core medicine in the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, which is a list of minimum medical needs for a basic healthcare system, but was supplanted by propofol. Despite this thiopental is still listed as an acceptable alternative to propofol, depending on local availability and cost of these agents. It was previously the first of three drugs administered during most lethal injections in the United States, but the U.S. manufacturer Hospira stopped manufacturing the drug and the EU banned the export of the drug for this purpose. Although thiopental abuse carries a dependency risk, its recreational use is rare.
Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broader sense to include euthanasia and other forms of suicide. The drugs cause the person to become unconscious, stops their breathing, and causes a heart arrhythmia, in that order.
Pancuronium is an aminosteroid muscle relaxant with various medical uses. It is used in euthanasia and was originally the second of three drugs administered during lethal injections in the United States.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the United States, currently used by 29 states, the federal government, and the military. Its existence can be traced to the beginning of the American colonies. The United States is the only developed Western nation that applies the death penalty regularly. It is one of 54 countries worldwide applying it, and was the first to develop lethal injection as a method of execution, which has since been adopted by five other countries. The Philippines has since abolished executions, and Guatemala has done so for civil offenses, leaving the United States as one of four countries to still use this method.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Ohio.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Utah.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nebraska.
Pentobarbital, also known as pentobarbitone, is a short-acting barbiturate. In high doses, pentobarbital causes death by respiratory arrest. In the United States, the drug has been used for executions of convicted criminals. Lundbeck does not permit its sale to prisons or corrections departments to carry out the death penalty. Abbott Pharmaceuticals' brand of pentobarbital, Nembutal, which was available in 50 and 100 mg yellow capsules, was discontinued in 1999. Prescribed for insomnia, it has been largely replaced by the benzodiazepine family of drugs. Nembutal was widely abused and known on the streets as "yellow jackets" due to their yellow capsule. Pentobarbital in pill form is no longer available. The death of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 was ruled as probable suicide due to an overdose of Nembutal. Kenneth Halliwell's death is also attributed to an overdose of Nembutal.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the state of Texas, part of the United States.
Hospira was an American global pharmaceutical and medical device company with headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois. It had approximately 19,000 employees. Before its acquisition by Pfizer, Hospira was the world's largest producer of generic injectable pharmaceuticals, manufacturing generic acute-care and oncology injectables, as well as integrated infusion therapy and medication management systems. Hospira's products are used by hospitals and alternate site providers, such as clinics, home healthcare providers and long-term care facilities. It was formerly the hospital products division of Abbott Laboratories. On September 3, 2015, Hospira was acquired by Pfizer, who subsequently sold off the medical devices portion of Hospira to ICU Medical.
Hill v. McDonough, 547 U.S. 573 (2006), was a United States Supreme Court case challenging the use of lethal injection as a form of execution in the state of Florida. The Court ruled unanimously that a challenge to the method of execution as violating the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution properly raised a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which provides a cause of action for civil rights violations, rather than under the habeas corpus provisions. Accordingly, that the prisoner had previously sought habeas relief could not bar the present challenge.
Kenneth Biros was an American convicted murderer who was sentenced to death and executed for the aggravated murder, attempted rape, aggravated robbery and felonious sexual penetration of a young woman. Biros was the first condemned person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States with the use of a single drug, setting a Guinness World Record.
Baze v. Rees, 553 U.S. 35 (2008), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the constitutionality of a particular method of lethal injection used for capital punishment.
Opened in 1969, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP) is a Georgia Department of Corrections prison for men in unincorporated Butts County, Georgia, near Jackson. The prison holds the state execution chamber. The execution equipment was moved to the prison in June 1980, with the first execution in the facility occurring on December 15, 1983. The prison houses the male death row, while female death row inmates reside in Arrendale State Prison.
Participation of medical professionals in American executions is a controversial topic, due to its moral and legal implications. The practice is proscribed by the American Medical Association, as defined in its Code of Medical Ethics. The American Society of Anesthesiologists endorses this position, stating that lethal injections "can never conform to the science, art and practice of anesthesiology".
Albert Greenwood Brown, Jr. is an American who has been convicted of sexual molestation with force of a minor, two counts of first-degree rape with force, and the first-degree murder of a teen girl in Riverside, California. He was scheduled to die by lethal injection at 9 p.m. on September 30, 2010, in California's first use of capital punishment since the lifting of a court-ordered moratorium. The use of lethal injection had been suspended in the state since February 2006 because of objections of cruel and unusual punishment for shortcomings of the facilities and procedures previously in use at San Quentin State Prison.
The execution of Jeffrey Timothy Landrigan, who had been convicted of murder in the state of Arizona, was carried out on 26 October 2010 by lethal injection. The sodium thiopental used in his execution was obtained from a source in Great Britain due to the shortage in the United States.
Organ donation in the United States prison population is the donation of biological tissues or organs from incarcerated individuals to living recipients in need of a transplantation.
The death of Clayton Darrell Lockett occurred on April 29, 2014, when he suffered a heart attack during an execution by lethal injection in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Lockett, aged 38, was convicted in 2000 of murder, rape and kidnapping.
References
- 1 2 Baldwin, Robert (January 1, 2009). Life and death matters: seeking the truth about capital punishment. NewSouth Books. pp. 56–58. ISBN 978-1-58838-234-4 . Retrieved September 3, 2011.
- 1 2 3 Gawande, Atul (2006). "When Law and Ethics Collide — Why Physicians Participate in Executions". New England Journal of Medicine . 354 (12): 1221–1229. doi:10.1056/nejmp068042. PMID 16554524.
- ↑ "AMA Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 2.06 – Capital Punishment". American Medical Association. Retrieved September 3, 2011.
- ↑ Chirico, Jeff (June 20, 2011). "Civil rights group calls for GA execution doc to lose license". CBS Atlanta. Archived from the original on August 30, 2011. Retrieved September 3, 2011.