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Abstract
Anaesthesia during lethal injection is essential to minimise suffering and to maintain
public acceptance of the practice. Lethal injection is usually done by sequential
administration of thiopental, pancuronium, and potassium chloride. Protocol information
from Texas and Virginia showed that executioners had no anaesthesia training, drugs
were administered remotely with no monitoring for anaesthesia, data were not recorded
and no peer-review was done. Toxicology reports from Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina,
and South Carolina showed that post-mortem concentrations of thiopental in the blood
were lower than that required for surgery in 43 of 49 executed inmates (88%); 21 (43%)
inmates had concentrations consistent with awareness. Methods of lethal injection
anaesthesia are flawed and some inmates might experience awareness and suffering during
execution.