On Friday, the Supreme Court had agreed to take a case that concerned the lethal injection protocol that had left an inmate in Oklahoma to die slowly and gasping for breath last year. This case was brought up by inmates who had claimed that the state protocol violates the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. This could open up a new chapter in the ongoing battle over the system of execution procedures in the U.S. Oklahoma's Attorney General Scott Pruitt actually defended the state's lethal injection procedure in a statement on Friday. Oklahoma uses an intravenous injection, which means within a vein, of Midazolan meant to cause unconsciousness. This was then followed by Rocuronium bromide which works as a paralytic and then potassium chloride that serves as a heart-stopping agent. Midazolam, is not FDA approved as a general anesthetic and they claim that it fails to maintain unconsciousness. What happened during the execution of convicted murderer and rapist, Clayton Lockett still remains unclear. Witnesses had described the man to be convulsing and struggling to speak. States that have capital punishment have been forced to find new drugs to use since European-based manufacturers had banned United States prison from using theirs for executions.The execution process of Lockett was halted, but he died of a heart attack. Apparently there have only been three executions where the prisoner was not paralyzed after the admin of mid and all three went horribly awry, raising serious concerns about the drug and whether it allow humane execution. I think that they should just get rid of the drug in general. I think that it's dumb that if the drug isn't producing a humane execution why is it even a thing?
