Have good veins if you get the death penalty in Idaho or New Hampshire

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBL873YMUD.html

Death Penalty Methods, State by State

<snip>IDAHO - Firing squad if lethal injection is "impractical."

NEW HAMPSHIRE - Hanging only if lethal injection cannot be given.

more

[ulysses]

1. actually, I read something a while back

that said that the sedatives used in lethal injections often will cause only paralysis and not a loss of consciousness or sensation, leaving the condemned to die in unexpressed agony.

All told, I'm not sure that the firing squad wouldn't be better...as long as we're going to continue the damned practice at all.

[beyurslf]

2. I remember reading that as well.

The person actually suffocates because they can't take a breath.

[ulysses]

4. link

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/07/national/main576918.shtml

According to the New York Times, the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide may render a person helpless without dulling pain. Used in about 30 states in combination with two other drugs that cause death, the drug may leave inmates wide awake as other medications cause them to suffocate slowly.

Two years ago, Tennessee made it a crime for veterinarians to use the drug when putting pets to sleep. More recently, a judge there found it had "no legitimate purpose," and merely "gives a false impression of serenity to viewers, making punishment by death more palatable."

"The subject gives all the appearances of a serene expiration when actually the subject is feeling and perceiving the excruciatingly painful ordeal of death by lethal injection," Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle wrote in a decision where, despite those concerns, she upheld the legality of lethal injection.

Emphasis added.

[cjm2222]

3. Re: Firing Squad

I tend to agree with you. It would probably be quicker and somewhat less painful. If I were condemned to death, I'd want it to be quick.

[bedtimeforbonzo]

5. only if it's a shot in the head

[Paranoid_Portlander]

6. Apparently Nebraska is the only state...

... where electrocution is the only option. Also, prior to about 1982, lethal injection was never used nationwide. Now it is almost always used (except Nebraska).