Cruel and unusual? Supply problems, botched executions renew lethal injection debate – The Verge The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts. 2015-06-29T14:09:29+00:00 https://www.theverge.com/rss/stream/5433281 https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/verge-rss-large_80b47e.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1 Arielle Duhaime-Ross Kwame Opam <![CDATA[Supreme Court rules states can use controversial drug in executions]]> https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/29/8861077/supreme-court-lethal-injection-drug-legal 2015-06-29T10:09:29-04:00 2015-06-29T10:09:29-04:00

In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol, which makes use of the controversial drug midazolam, is protected by the constitution. In the short term, this decision means executions in the four states that use the drug will proceed as normal. It also deals a blow to the growing movement against the death penalty.

Opponents argued that midazolam is an ineffective anesthetic

The Eighth Amendment forbids the use of "cruel and unusual punishments." For many years, one way to avoid such punishments during an execution was by using lethal injection; the method is widely considered to cause …

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]]> Adi Robertson <![CDATA[Arizona to change lethal injection drugs after botched execution]]> https://www.theverge.com/us-world/2014/12/22/7436553/arizona-to-change-lethal-injection-drugs-after-botched-execution 2014-12-22T18:41:55-05:00 2014-12-22T18:41:55-05:00

Arizona is changing the mixture of drugs it uses for lethal injections after an execution this summer left an inmate alive for almost two hours, the Associated Press reports. In a letter to Governor Jan Brewer, Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan said that the state would be abandoning its current sedative and painkiller combination, potentially replacing it with an older alternative. The news comes in response to an independent report investigating the death of Joseph Rudolph Wood, a convicted murderer who was executed by lethal injection earlier this year. The process, which should have taken minutes to work, dragged on as Wood …

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]]> Nathan Ingraham <![CDATA[Botched lethal injection takes nearly two hours to kill Arizona inmate]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/7/23/5931739/botched-lethal-injection-takes-nearly-two-hours-to-kill-arizona-inmate 2014-07-23T20:29:57-04:00 2014-07-23T20:29:57-04:00

An execution taking place in Arizona tonight appears to have gone horribly awry. According to a report from the Associated Press, inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood "gasped and snorted" and was still alive more than an hour after the execution began. Wood was not pronounced dead until 3:49PM MT, one hour and 57 minutes after the beginning of the procedure.

Wood's lawyers filed an emergency appeal during the execution, noting that he was "gasping and snorting for more than an hour" but was still alive some 70 minutes after the execution began. The whole process should have taken 10 minutes, Wood's lawyers said.

Wood had been attempting to delay the …

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]]> Josh Lowensohn <![CDATA[Oklahoma delays man’s execution by six months after botched effort on fellow inmate]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/5/8/5696054/oklahoma-prisoner-has-his-execution-delayed-6-months-after-botched-effort 2014-05-08T16:13:02-04:00 2014-05-08T16:13:02-04:00

In the wake of an execution that left a prisoner dying of a painful heart attack, Oklahoma is delaying lethal injection for another man so that the matter can be fully investigated. Oklahoma's attorney general today said that he'd put off the execution of convicted murderer and rapist Charles Warner so that the state can finish looking into what led to the botched execution of prisoner Clayton Lockett, The New York Times reports. The mix of drugs Lockett was given last week left him awake during the second and third rounds of chemicals designed to stop breathing and then the heart, something the White House called inhumane.

Executions are un …

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]]> Russell Brandom <![CDATA[White House says Oklahoma execution was inhumane]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/4/30/5668998/white-house-says-oklahoma-execution-was-inhumane 2014-04-30T15:23:22-04:00 2014-04-30T15:23:22-04:00

In a press conference today, White House spokesman Jay Carney condemned the recent execution of Oklahoma prisoner Clayton Lockett, in which an unorthodox lethal injection cocktail resulted in violent convulsions and a ruptured vein for the prisoner. Carney said the execution was clearly inhumane, raising questions over whether it violated the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

A dwindling supply of lethal injection drugs

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has already stayed the execution of another inmate in the wake of the controversy, and today announced an independent review of the state's execution procedure. The bigg …

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]]> Matt Stroud <![CDATA[One of two Texas executions back on following legal scuffle over lethal drug formula]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/4/2/5575178/two-texas-executions-halted-because-source-of-lethal-drug-is-a-secret 2014-04-02T15:13:42-04:00 2014-04-02T15:13:42-04:00

One of two executions in Texas will continue as scheduled, following an earlier legal ruling that resulted in a temporary delay. Earlier today, a Houston judge halted the executions of two men after their lawyers argued that the drug used to carry out their executions might constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The source of the lethal drug, pentobarbital, had previously been withheld; the judge ruled that the lawyers were unable to challenge whether a new batch of pentobarbital was tainted without knowing where the lethal drug originated.

Prisoners want to know if the pentobarbital is tainted

"Texas law does not specify what substance wi …

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]]> Jacob Kastrenakes <![CDATA[Oklahoma judge rules death row inmates can find out where execution drugs come from]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/3/26/5549900/execution-drug-secrecy-law-is-unconstitutional-oklahoma-court-rules 2014-03-26T14:04:54-04:00 2014-03-26T14:04:54-04:00

An Oklahoma judge has overturned a state law that prevented inmates on death row - and just about everyone else - from learning the source of drugs used during lethal injections, reports Oklahoma City's KFOR. According to the Associated Press, the law was declared unconstitutional because the strict privacy that it gave to drug makers violated petitioners' due process by not allowing information about them to be revealed even during a court's discovery process. The ruling came from an Oklahoma County district court in a lawsuit raised by two inmates scheduled for execution in April.

Whether lethal injection drugs' sources should be disclose …

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]]> Rich McCormick <![CDATA[Death row prisoners may be forced into electric chair if Virginia bill passes]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/6/5385392/electric-chair-bill-proposed-in-virginia-after-lethal-injection-shortage 2014-02-06T05:17:06-05:00 2014-02-06T05:17:06-05:00

As supplies of the drugs used to administer lethal injections in the United States dry up, state governments are turning to other methods to execute their death row inmates. Ohio officials used an untested cocktail of lethal drugs on an inmate in January, to macabre results. Now Virginia has proposed a bill that would mean inmates will be sent to the electric chair if sufficient amounts of lethal injection drugs can't be found. While Virginia hasn't questioned the legality of the electric chair since 1921, courts in other states, such as Georgia and Nebraska, have classed it as cruel and unusual punishment.

The proposed bill would make Virg …

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]]> Rich McCormick <![CDATA[Untested lethal injection drug takes more than 20 minutes to kill Ohio death row inmate]]> https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/17/5318064/dennis-mcguire-takes-20-minutes-to-die-during-lethal-inection 2014-01-17T02:17:34-05:00 2014-01-17T02:17:34-05:00

Dennis McGuire, a prisoner in Ohio sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Joy Stewart in 1989, took more than 20 minutes to die on Thursday after being given a lethal injection. According to the Associated Press, the combination of drugs used to kill McGuire had never before been used in the United States for execution purposes.

McGuire reportedly made "loud snorting noises," before 10 minutes of "irregular breathing and gasping." Lethal injections in the United States are usually carried out using pentobarbital, a method that leads to much shorter executions, but Ohio's supplies of the drug have run out after its Danish manufacturer …

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]]> Amar Toor <![CDATA[US executions decline amid European restrictions on death penalty drugs]]> https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/19/5226808/death-penalty-executions-sentences-decline-in-us-dpic-report 2013-12-19T06:48:00-05:00 2013-12-19T06:48:00-05:00

The number of executions declined in the US this year amid drug shortages and growing concerns over the cost and fairness of death penalty cases, according to a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization. The annual report, published Thursday, shows that there were 39 executions carried out in the US this year, down from the 43 that were carried out in both 2012 and 2011. This marks just the second time in 19 years that fewer than 40 people were executed on US soil.

So far, 80 people have been sentenced to death this year - two more than last year, but well below the historical …

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