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New Lethal Injection Drug Could Amount to Torturing Prisoners to Death

Facing a shortage of lethal injection drugs, some death penalty states have begun switching up the drug cocktail used in executions—but is this experimentation legal?

Press Room

May 24, 2011

In response to a national shortage of sodium thiopental, a drug used in lethal injection, some death penalty states have decided to find new sources of the drug overseas. Other states have replaced it with a new drug that has not been properly vetted. These changes to the lethal injection process leave prisoners at risk of being tortured to death. Joining RT America yesterday, The Nation’s Liliana Segura explained that the experimental way these states have been putting inmates to death has had very grim consequences.

For more on the legal and ethical implications of the new lethal injection drug cocktail, read Segura’s piece, "The Executioners Dilemma."

—Sara Jerving

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