DEATH PENALTY
WHEN LIFE GENERATES DEATH (LEGALLY)

LETAL INJECTION

Survival time: 6-15 minutes Introduced in Oklahoma and Texas in 1977; the first execution was in Texas on December 1982. It involves an intravenous continuous injection of a letal dose of a fast action barbiturate (penthotal) in combination of a paralysing chemical agent. The process is like the one used for a total anaesthesia. In Texas a combination of three substances is used: a barbiturate which makes the prisoner unconscious, a substance which relaxes his muscles and paralyses the diaphragm to stop the movement of the lungs and another one which makes his heart stop. Some people say this is the most humane execution method, instead there could be even serious after-effects: a prolonged use of drugs taken in a intreavenous way by the prisoner can involve the search for a deeper vein in a surgical way; if the prisoner is agitated, the poison can penetrate into an artery or into muscular tissue and hurt; if components aren't well-proportionated or combine too early, the mixture can inspissate, obstruct veins and slow down procedure; if the anaesthetic barbiturate doesn't operate quickly the prisoner can be conscious while he chokes or while his langs paralyse.

Here is a particular case of a prisoner submitted to letal injection:
James Autry: executed on 14th March, 1984. The first execution was expected for November 1983: Autry had already been tied to the stretcher and he was undergoing the first part of the procedure - a saline solution was being introducted in his veins - when the execution was suspended.
After the "second" execution, an eye witness said that the sentenced took at least ten minutes to die and most of the time he was conscious, he could move and he moaned because of the pain. A prison doctor present at the execution said later that the needle had clogged up, slowing down execution times.