On Death Row, a Battle Over Drink that Suffocates and Causes Pain before Dying
Thursday, September 16, 2004 at 06:14AM
TheSpook
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 
]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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