On Death Row, a Battle Over Drink that Suffocates and Causes Pain before Dying

Edward L. Harper, the last man to be executed in this state, took 12 minutes to die. Observers on that spring evening in 1999 said he looked tranquil as an executioner pumped a series of three chemicals into him - a barbiturate to make him unconscious, then a paralyzing agent, and then a chemical used in road salt, to stop his heart. The next morning, a state medical examiner performed an autopsy. She noted, among many other things, that Mr. Harper's heart weighed 420 grams and that he was wearing a cloth scapular when he died. It said, "Whosoever has this shall not suffer eternal fire." The examiner's report also determined the levels of the lethal-injection chemicals in Mr. Harper's blood, drawn from three places in his corpse. Now, as two other Kentucky inmates face execution, their lawyers say those numbers prove that Mr. Harper was tortured to death. They say that the drug meant to make him unconscious did not work, meaning the other two drugs subjected him to suffocation and searing pain while he was wide awake but unable to move or speak. In a suit filed in Circuit Court here in August, they have asked a judge to halt their clients' executions as cruel and unusual punishment. [more ]