Critics: Alabama execution helps case against sedative
Source: Associated Press
Kim Chandler and Kate Brumback, Associated Press
Updated 7:39 pm, Friday, December 9, 2016
ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama execution in which a prisoner heaved his chest, coughed and appeared to move offers more evidence that a drug used to sedate inmates before they are put to death should not be used in lethal injections, critics of the drug said Friday.
Alabama prison officials insisted there was no reason to believe Robert Bert Smith Jr. suffered after receiving the first of three drugs.
The debate focuses on midazolam, a drug that has been used in executions that were called into question in several other states. It has been the subject of multiple legal challenges.
. . .
Smith's legal team said the prisoner's movement showed "he was not anesthetized at any point during the agonizingly long procedure." As they awaited results of a required autopsy, the attorneys said "no autopsy can measure the extent of Ron Smith's suffering as he died."
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Alabama-inmate-coughs-heaves-during-execution-10785144.php
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