Procedure for Lethal Injection

Describing the official procedures followed in an execution - The (name the state) department of corrections follows certain official procedures in an execution. (Determine the method of execution used in your jurisdiction and describe with precise accuracy the gruesome mechanics of the procedure used to execute inmates in your jurisdiction, e.g., The prisoner is moved from the Ellis Unit to the Huntsville Unit, about thirteen miles away, where the death chamber is located. The inmate is transferred early in the morning and taken to one of eight holding cells adjacent to the death chamber. During the day, the prisoner is entitled to visits from the prison chaplain or his personal spiritual advisor and his attorney and approved family and friends. After 6:00 p.m., only the chaplain is allowed to visit. The final meal is served between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. At the hour of execution, the inmate is taken from his holding cell and walked to the death chamber where he is secured to a hospital gurney, or cot. One of his arms is fastened to a small board protruding from the gurney. A medical assistant then inserts an intravenous catheter into a vein in his arm. The witnesses are then allowed at that point to enter the viewing area of the death chamber. They stand behind a rail separating them from the inmate by four or five feet. The inmate is then allowed to make a final statement. When the statement is completed, the warden announces that the execution can proceed. The executioner stands behind a wall containing two small covered windows, one connecting the the tube of the IV and another for communication. At the warden's announcement, the executioner injects a neutral solution into the prisoner's arm. Then he injects a fatal combination of sodium thiopental; Pavulon (pancuronium bromide), a muscle relaxant; and potassium chloride to stop the heart.) [Note: Every state employing death penalty should have a official execution protocol that will set forth specifically the mechanical procedure employed in putting condemned prisoners to death; if your state does not have such an official protocol and leaves the mechanics to the discretion of the State Department of Corrections, a systemic challenge should be made to the administration of the death penalty on Eighth Amendment grounds. See, for example, the Maryland case of Vernon L. Evans Jr. where a state court held that the checklist of lethal injection procedures was a regulation that had to comply with the requirements of the state administrative procedures statute.]