The drug cocktail used to execute an Oklahoma inmate who writhed on the gurney before eventually suffering a massive heart attack is deemed too painful to use on animals, according to a new report by The Constitution ProjectI'll.
Veterinarians in at least one state are barred from using a three-drug formula used on several inmates, including Clayton Lockett last week. Lockett, who was convicted in 2000 of murdering a 19-year-old woman, died almost two hours after the lethal injection drugs were administered.
The report recommends using a lethal dose of a single drug, either an anesthetic or barbiturate.
The paper's authors include both proponents and opponents of the death penalty -- judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors and police officers -- according to the Crime Report.
Other recommendations from the report include:
[R]ecommendations regarding the preservation, testing and presentation of forensic evidence; the creation of statutory remedies for wrongful convictions and the implementation of procedures for the systemic review to help avoid future errors; the videotaping of custodial interrogations – where practical – in order to avoid the documented problem of false and otherwise inaccurate confessions; the adoption of best practices for eyewitness identifications; [and] the effective implementation of prosecutors’ constitutional obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence.
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